Peter, Australia: Jim,

I am still concerned about experience at wide reciever. Do you hear anything about signing or trading for another experienced reveiver?

Also, Is Smith penciled in to start straight away? if so who are now the starters on the O Line?

Thanks

Jim Thomas: I have not heard anything yet on the WR position.

If it were my guess I'd say the o-line shapes up like this on game day: LT Barron, LG Bell, C Brown, RG Incognito, RT Smith--and backups on game-day, if the Rams draft seven are Goldberg and Greco. (I don't know who the backup center is under this scenario.)

dominic: Jim:
Who is going to be our punt and kick returner? A free agent? Trade for Roscoe Parrish?
Thank you.....

Jim Thomas: Derek Stanley on punts and kickoffs; Jonathan Wade worked a lot on punt returns last year in practice and has a lot of speed; Burton and Avery have some college experience. But as of right there's no clear-cut guy (or guys). Kenneth Darby did some KORs last year after Stanley got hurt.

johndeere: i was wondering,why when a team is way ahead in the game in the 4th or sooner they dont put thier backup qb in.wouldnt that help the backup? and what do you think of null....ty

Jim Thomas: Actually teams do that a lot (putting the backup in late), but in the NFL leads can disappear quickly so coaches sometimes are slower to do so than you'd like. Null piled up some impressive numbers in college. I'm anxious to see how he throws on the practice field. (arm strength, accuracy, footwork, etc.)

h2o_jd55: Thanks for the Chat JT. Were the Rams thinking of drafting Iowa RB Green with their 3rd round pick before NY Jets traded in front of them? Also, why didn't the Rams trade down in the 3rd round to get more picks? I'm not complaining about Fletcher, I would think some team wanted to trade up for the 2nd pick in the 3rd round, maybe the Rams could have drafted a needed WR and still get Fltcher.

Jim Thomas: No one's told me for sure, but I really do believe they wanted Greene. And if they really wanted him, they probably weren't working on any trade downs prior to the Jets picking him.

stacy3424: Hey Jim, thanks for Q/A with us regular people, I really enjoy it. Anyway, Jim I really think the Rams made safe picks in the draft but not really the best moves they could have. I wonder what would have happen had we selected Sanchez at #2. I'm sure we would have been able to trade out of that selection with the Jets or maybe traded Bulger to them and kept Sanchez and still picked up a few picks from the the Jets. I still think selecting a tackle #2 was not a great move, we should have went after Curry/Crabtree/Sanchez and pick up a tackle in the second round like the Seahawks did. I don't think Smith is much better then most of the tackles taking in the 2 round.

Jim why do you think in round #2 we took Laurinaitis over Rey Maualuga. Malugea was rated as high as a top 10 pick and in my opion he's the type of inside guy you want to plug the running lanes and to intimidate an offence. When I look at his game film, I see a real deal tuff guy in him. All the talk about him not being a 3 down back isn't true, he's not bad in pass coverage. What do you think?

Jim Thomas: Despite the rumors, the Rams WERE NOT TRADING Bulger. The new staff seems to like him. And he's got a year at least to re-establish himself. And once you actually draft Sanchez any trade leverage lessens, because if the Jets or anybody else wants him, they know as each pick gets drafted and more prospects you like go off the board, you have even less leverage.

Interesting point on the second-round tackles. It will be interesting to see three, four years from now if J. Smith proves to be better than say Eben Britton of Arizona. For a while over the weekend, I wondered how taking Aaron Curry (at No. 2 overall) and Britton (in the second round) will look a few years from now compared to Smith-Laurinaitis.
Laurinaitis is a safer pick than Maualuga. I think more than the 3-down thing was the issue of Maualuga's off-field activities. (Rumors of drinking, bar fights, etc.)