Rams close door on Griffin trade Thursday … maybe

As draft day approaches there are few teams whose picks I am more intrigued by than the St. Louis Rams.

That’s because this up-and-coming team, though last in the NFC West last season, has a solid defense and a handful of offensive weapons with which to build around. And it has the number two pick overall, courtesy of the trade that keeps on giving, the 2012 deal with Washington that netted the Redskins Robert Griffin III.

Now, given the injury Griffin endured at the end of 2012 and his accompanying struggles in 2013, it might be able to laugh this off as one sided. I’m not sure that is fair – during the regular season Griffin looked like a dynamic, game-changing QB who could redefine the position. There still is a chance that could happen.

But the haul St. Louis has gotten out of that deal has contributed to the team’s ability to stay competitive even in a division with stalwarts like San Francisco and Seattle. Look no further than the twitter feed of 12^th Man Rising, who this afternoon acknowledged that while the Rams are often overlooked at the moment, games between all four of the teams in that division are tough, tight, defensive battles.

This weekend, St. Louis has a chance to narrow the gap in the division. And Thursday night the team will close the loop on the Griffin trade. … Or will it?

Let’s revisit. For trading the second pick overall to Washington in 2012, St. Louis received first and second round picks that year and additional first rounders in 2013 and 2014 (who could have foreseen that Washington would collapse last year, leaving the Rams the number two pick overall?).

But GM Les Snead and Coach Jeff Fisher have aggressively used those and their own picks to jump up and down during the draft the last two seasons. To the best of my ability, I’ve figured out that St. Louis has netted the following players as a result of using or trading up and down with the Washington picks (We wrote about this deal in depth last season, too, in a post you can read here):

• DT Michael Brockers
• CB Janoris Jenkins
• RB Isaiah Pead
• G Rokevious Watkins
• LB Alec Ogletree
• WR Stedman Bailey
• RB Zac Stacy
• And the 2014 #2 pick

Certainly not all have panned out. The jury is still out on Bailey after a lackluster rookie season.  Watkins washed out with the Rams and has moved on to Kansas City. And Pead is probably getting a last chance this season after doing nothing to distinguish himself the first two years he was in St. Louis. But Brockers has been nothing short of a stud. Stacy came on the scene rather unheralded in 2013, promptly took over the RB position in week five and put up 1,114 total yards and eight TDs as the replacement for Steven Jackson. And Ogletree had 117 tackles, 1.5 sacks, 10 pass deflections and a touchdown on an interception return during a sometimes inconsistent but occasionally flashy rookie season.

So, do the Rams use the second pick? Ramblin’ Fan’s Blaine Grisak during our Team Blogger Mock draft selected LB Kahlil Mack from the No. 2 spot (and followed up with physical CB Darqueze Dennard a few spots later with the Rams’ own choice). Those would be great picks for a blue collar, rough-and-tumble NFC West, where Seattle, San Francisco and Arizona all show up every week ready to knock loose some teeth.

I went with Sammy Watkins for St. Louis in my mock, giving the Rams a bigger receiver to pair with Tavon Austin, whom the Rams grabbed in 2012 after trading up with their own first. Couple those guys with Stacy and Sam Bradford, who was coming on in 2013 before he got hurt, and I think the Rams could be a playoff threat.

Others say the Rams are likely to take one of the solid tackle options – Greg Robinson or Jake Matthews. Any of the three directions is perfectly legit and defensible in my eyes.

But it wouldn’t surprise me at all – nor would it sadden me, given how many posts we’ve been able to get out of the RGIII trade from a couple years ago – if the Rams again got creative and chose to trade the number two pick. If they got a haul even similar to the one they received in 2012, that deal would extend the branches out on the family tree from that RGIII trade yet another couple years, providing excellent fodder – and, in this deep draft, probably still a couple of great additions to the 2014 roster for St. Louis.

So, yes, Washington may still have gotten its generational QB out of that deal. That has yet to be answered and, probably rightfully so, the folks over at Riggo’s Rag, for example, so far say they’d rather have Griffin than the picks it took to get him. But I would take what the Rams have turned that deal into 100 times out of 100.

And yes, when I tune in to watch the first round unfold on Thursday night, my eyes will be glued to what St. Louis does. Between the trade and the creativity of the Rams’ management brass, it’s almost must watch television.

 Loading ...