St. Louis Rams: How Beneficial Will Wayne Hunter Be to the Rams?

[OldRamsfan]

St. Louis Rams: How Beneficial Will Wayne Hunter Be to the Rams?

Now that the Wayne Hunter for Jason Smith trade is official (via Brian Costello of the New York Post), it's time to hash out the details and find out who exactly the St. Louis Rams are getting besides a right tackle that needed to leave the New York Jets.

Hunter was chased out of New York and now finds himself far away from any type of scrutiny he was receiving in the Big Apple.

Wayne Hunter, welcome to St. Louis.

So what are the Rams getting in the right tackle from Honolulu, Hawaii?

Are they getting the man who allowed 11 sacks and 32 quarterback pressures last year, or are they getting the veteran, battle-tested offensive lineman? If it's the former, it won't be a good fit.

Sam Bradford might as well be Mark Sanchez. Sanchez was sacked the fifth-most times in the league last year, and Bradford was right behind him at No. 6.

The Rams haven't had consistency on the offensive line for a number of years. In Hunter, they add an experienced player coming off a down year.

A change of scenery is exactly what Hunter needed.

Jason Smith, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, now finds himself in the media capital of the NFL. He's never been healthy, which doesn't help, and he's allowed a lot of sacks.

Hi-res-hi-res-86350948_crop_exact Smith may deserve a chance, but it will only get tougher in New York.
Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

At least the Rams improve health wise by acquiring Hunter.

I understand why it's hard to form an opinion on this trade, but it is worth considering that Hunter worked with Brian Schottenheimer in New York, so there will be some familiarity in St. Louis.

Like Schottenheimer, Hunter was run out of New York. Let's see what the two can do in St. Louis.

By
Mack Rosenberg
(Contributor) on August 28, 2012


Anything is possible at this point ? I remain hopeful it will work out , I have looked at his film and its not good

[shower beers]

Maybe they think he'll be able to settle down and relax, without having to literally look over his shoulder at screaming Jets fans each week. It sounds as if the scrutiny was really affecting him. And if he ends up not panning out, then we saved a few bucks and gambled practically nothing to get there.

[HUbison]

How Beneficial Will Wayne Hunter Be to the Rams?

About as beneficial as Jason Smith, but at $1.5 million less.

[Richbert88]

About as beneficial as Jason Smith, but at $1.5 million less.

I wouldn't be surprised if Hunter got cut. The $ savings is useful should Snead find a serviceable OT option in a trade or need the money to retain Lil' Animal services through an extension.

[MauiRam]

So what are the Rams getting in the right tackle from Honolulu, Hawaii?

Are they getting the man who allowed 11 sacks and 32 quarterback pressures last year, or are they getting the veteran, battle-tested offensive lineman? If it's the former, it won't be a good fit.
Sam Bradford might as well be Mark Sanchez. Sanchez was sacked the fifth-most times in the league last year, and Bradford was right behind him at No. 6.

Anything is possible at this point ? I remain hopeful it will work out , I have looked at his film and its not good

From another forum:

Aug 28, 2012 9:51 am
abyzmul wrote: Hi there Rams faithful, Jets fan here. I just wanted to log on and swap some info on this trade, although I won't post and bail, as I like to get different perspective on the game from other fan bases.

So, here is my straight dirt on Wayne Hunter, affectionately known as WFH to Jets fans, and you can use your imagination as to what the F stands for.

Hunter stood out as the swing tackle (or 'sixth man', if you prefer) in a strange hybrid offense during the Jets' 2009 season, and was able to sub for Damien Woody in a decent capacity during that season as well. Mainly a role player.

In 2010 he played the same role, although he was called upon in the playoffs to once again take over at right tackle when Woody was injured, and did a decent job. In both of these cases, Hunter was helped with another swing man, backup OL Rob Turner.

In 2011, Woody was shown the door in favor of Hunter. This turned out with mainly disappointing results, as Hunter was overwhelmed by the starting job. He did show a bit of upside at times, but for the most part he missed assignment regularly, accounted for not only a large number of sacks but also pressures and had a disgustingly bad sense of timing to jump offsides. He never recovered, and got worse as the season progressed and got Mark Sanchez injured on two separate occasions after being rag-dolled by pass rushers.

Still, as much as I like to criticize his play, I held out hope that a light would go on with a new OC and OL coach and simpler blocking scheme for 2012.

What we got instead was one preseason game where I never saw a tackle play worse than Hunter did. It was against the Giants, and he was coming off of a tweaked back, but my god was he bad two weeks ago. I don't think he made a single good block, because I re-watched that game twice just to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

So my take on this is that Schotty really wants to use the swing man in your offense, because there can't be any way he would entertain the notion of starting Hunter at any point.

And if that is the case, you guys likely got the better end of this trade, although you won't find any Jets fans anywhere that will miss WFH.

Now, can anyone be kind enough to give me a bit of info on Smith? I can only glean so much from articles, and I trust fans a but more to be candid. I know some of the info about his concussion history, but less about his performance weaknesses.

Well, however we use him, at least Schotty has some idea of what we are getting. On the other hand, we may end up trading him to Detroit, as word from Motor City is Scott Linehan is looking for yet another tight end ..