4121

Gotta love the Rams draft, right?

The Samchise is the real deal, and the shoulder appears to be sound. He’s benefited from playing behind a solid offensive line (one that has room for improvement at the guard position, but center and both tackles have been very, very good), and been crippled by losing Donnie Avery and Mark Clayton for the season.

2nd round pick Roger Saffold looks like the steal of the draft. On draft day, the Rams projected him as their right tackle, with 2009 #1 pick Jason Smith manning the left side, but in training camp the rookie got the all-important LT slot, and both guys have flourished as a result.

Elsewhere in the 2010 draft, the Rams did pretty good. 3rd round pick Jerome Murphy looks like he’s figuring out the NFL game and will be a starter soon. Illini Mike (Michael Hoomanawanui) looked great in brief parts of the season; the only question there is health and durability, but if he can stay on the field he’s got the makings of a dangerous TE. Late-round selection George Selvie has been a find; he’s mostly been used on passing downs as a pass-rush specialist, but he’s been very good at getting to the QB.

The only real bust of the Rams draft has been Cincinnati WR Mardy Gilyard, who brought gaudy NCAA stats to the Rams and not much else. The Rams haven’t been impressed with his football smarts or his work ethic. Put it this way: Mark Clayton learned the Ram playbook in two weeks; Gilyard’s been working on it since May and still doesn’t have it down. This is a team starved for good play from WR, and it would seem to have been a perfect situation for Gilyard to step into and make a case for himself. Instead, I was having a bowl of cornflakes this morning and there was Mardy Gilyard’s picture on the milk carton.

The Rams 2009 draft was a lot better than it looked last year, too. Jason Smith has been healthy and seems to have found a home at RT, James Laurinaitis has been a stud and a total find at MLB–think Teddy Bruschi only bigger, and CB Bradley Fletcher is solid at CB.

After the disastrous drafts of 2007 and 2006 (Not a single player on the Rams active roster at the start of the 2010 season from either of those drafts; Yikes!) the Rams have finally begun to dig out of the hole the previous front office dug them into.

4122

In many ways the Patriots are defined by the 2010 Draft. The defense is barely out of it’s shrink wrap and makes 4th year Meriweather look old. 8 of the defensive roster are rookies. 18 have 3 or fewer years. On offense, the competence of the two rookie tight ends along with Algie Crumpler have allowed the Pats to not only feature balance in the running game but also allowed them to trade away Randy Moss without much (any?) harm to the passing game.

The Pats didn’t have great drafts from 2006-2008, they managed to keep four players from those picks on the opening roster and defense was still in critical need of an overhaul. With 13 picks in 2009 and 8 still on the roster, the Pats seemed to have enough success last year to remain competitive, but where that draft was full of able and workman talent the 2010 looks like a batch of stars.

1st rounder Devin McCourty - If a first rounder can exceed expectations, McCourty has. Projected to ease into the NFL as a special teams guy he instead has excelled as the #1 starting CB spot after the loss of Leigh Bodden to injury.

2nd rounder Rob Gronkowski - Highly valued as a complete TE but few teams seemed interested in picking TEs in 2010 so the Pats outbid the Ravens for him and it so far seems more than worth it.

[LEFT]2nd rounder Brandon Spikes - An instant starter to compliment Mayo at Linebacker. Excellent against the run and a great fit for the Pats with quick read ability. However there are some off field issue concerns and now doping problems.

4th rounder Aaron Hernandez - A TE in a draft down on TEs with perhaps concerns about maturity, Hernandez became a steal in the fourth round. H-back, F-back, Slotback, WR hybrid, whatever he is, he’s lethal on the field.

5th rounder Zoltan Mesko - Great name but suffers from tons of inconsistency on kicks. However he may play a more critical role in handling long snaps. Saved the bacon more than once after some wild snaps by former long snapper Jake Ingram and shows no trace of rookieness despite the changes in the kicking game. Plus he’s not Matt Dodge.

2nd rounder Jermaine Cunningham - Despite missing almost all of the pre-season he’s made plays at a positional deficiency for the Pats, pass rushing outside LB. Guys from the UFL are also getting snaps here so it may be conditional, but he’s beat out other would be starters.

7th rounder Brandon Deaderick - DE is another position plagued with injury, but when he plays Deaderick shows playmaking ability.

3rd rounder Taylor Price - Pretty much an unknown. With the emergence of the rookie TEs allowing a 2 or sometimes 3 TE set, the quick recovery of Welker and the trade for Branch, WR has no open slots. Price hasn’t beaten Tate or Edelman for the 3rd WR role and doesn’t feature on special teams, but he’s held his roster spot over other potentials and moves of necessity for roster space. Maybe we’ll find out next year.

Not counting Kade Weston a 7th rounder on IR, the other 3 out of the 12 total picks were cut. Undrafted rookies Kyle Love, Dane Fletcher and Sergio Brown have each made big contributions to defense and special teams.[/LEFT]

4123

The Pats didn’t have great drafts from 2006-2008, they managed to keep four players from those picks on the opening roster and defense was still in critical need of an overhaul.

I find this an interesting comment. Anyone have stats on how many draft picks are still on the average roster after 1 year? 2? 5?

Four players in three years certainly doesn’t sound great, but who knows, it might be average. Even with the shorter draft, most teams don’t expect those late round drafts to actually end up as NFL players, or at best as situational/punt team guys.

4124

I feel the need to point out that as of this week, the badass NFC South collectively has only 1 more win than the NFC West.

That said, the NFC sux

4125

Yeah, it’s too bad about Gilyard for the Rams. The kid is seeing a huge opportunity pass him by. He may not even make the roster next year if the Rams go after a FA WR and/or spend a high pick on one and if Clayton and Avery can come back from their injuries.

From the bits and pieces I’ve seen of him in games, he doesn’t seem to be as quick as advertised. We knew he wasn’t a burner but did have decent speed, but the book on him was he had quick feet and was elusive. I just haven’t seen that in him. Whatever edge he may have had in college didn’t transfer to the pros. And he can’t learn the playbook. In the game I went to against the Chargers Bradford targeted him on a quick out and Gilyard ran the wrong pattern. If the DB had seen the pass, it would have been a pick six.

The Rams have lost three WRs to injury this year. Gilyard could have stepped in and shown something, but all he’s shown so far is that he’s not ready.

4126

Rex Ryan loves foot + ball.

4127

Maybe the edge he had was the Big East.

I just looked up the box score for the Sugar Bowl against Florida: he had 7 catches for 41 yards.

4128

Jets = Just End the Season. So true.

So he has a foot fetish. That seems rather mild. Oh wait:

The raunchy Alt.com profile purported to be that of Ryan and his wife also shows that they are interested in threesomes and “nipple torture.” The profile is rife with other explicit sex acts and positions the couple is allegedly interested in.

Ryan needs another assistant coach to trip someone in this next game and get the focus back on a different football coach behaving badly.

4129

I’m not a Rex Ryan fan, but fuck this puritanical nonsense. Who cares what he and his wife get down to in their free time?

4130

The Deadspin article notes that there is a profile using the same name and also foot fetish oriented that contains a number of significant discrepancies from Rex and his wife. So its very possible that while some of this is legit, other stuff being attributed isn’t.

None of which should matter, unless we are now throwing personal privacy out the window.

4131

That’s an interesting question. I certainly don’t care from any kind of moralistic standpoint. I guess there’s a natural curiosity, however, about people in the news, people that have commanded our attention. It’s interesting to get a glimpse at the private side.

4132

Yes, well, would you like for people to get a glimpse of your private side, and ask you about it at press conferences?

It’s one thing in a Favrecock case, where the dude allegedly engaged in sexual harassment; that’s something that needs to be (and apparently won’t be) taken seriously. But this is just a couple’s personal life, and the media should leave it alone.

4133

Guys, I was really enjoying people’s thoughts on their home team’s draft situation, and then you bring up sexual fetishes? Jeez.

So, any more actual football talk, anyone? Pittsburgh/Carolina is tomorrow night. I’m actually a little nervous about Pittsburgh. 96 hours rest exactly, badly injured, and their special teams last week looked like San Diego’s did earlier in the year. I think it’ll be a much closer game than I’d like! :(

4134

Against Carolina? They are the worst team in the NFL. Pittsburgh should handle them easily enough.

4135

Amen. I could care less if the dude likes to get freaky with his wife. If it was hookers on main street maybe there’d be a news story but what he does with his wife at home should not be getting media attention. It will get a ton of coverage anyway, because the media knows that sex sells, but I’m a little disgusted by the whole scenario. I’m definitely sorry for Rex and his wife.

4136

Wow, Rex Ryan’s foot fetish news is one of the top news headlines on ESPN.com. I’d wager that they’re beating it to death on the actual network as well. Stay classy, sports media.

4137

I’m surprised that there is any surprise about this being a hot story. This is the 24/7 news cycle at work.

4138

THis was on the TVs where I had lunch, and I got sooooo pissed.

Who. Gives. A. FUCK.

And oh, if you DO give a fuck (for any reason other than, “Oh, I might be interested in a threesome and thank you for letting me know about this opportunity”), go fucking kill yourself. Life does not need you.

4139

Carolina brings the whole division down.

The defense is fairly solid. The offense is what’s terrible. But yes, Pittsburgh should do well.

4140

Yeah, all of the coverage of Ryan and his wife…couldn’t give a shit. I don’t care what his kinks are. I’m sure if I was in his position, I’d be a bit more circumspect, but whatever. I’m also not surprised that the media is covering it like news. That’s what they do.