bobby massie ot or ronell lewis olb anyone at top of 4th round

[Goldenfleece]

Ronell Lewis is a 3-4 OLB. Why would we take him?

I'm not sure he's exactly an any kind of guy. According to his scouting profile, they tried him at almost every position in the front seven (I think they played a 4-3 at OU). He's a 250-lb. tweener, which is probably why he gets labeled as a 3-4 guy. That said, I don't know if there's any reason he wouldn't fit in a 4-3.

[general counsel]

Guys fall every single year for all sorts of reasons that are not directly related to anything other than the luck of the draw. By this point of the draft, there are always a couple of gems. I think Massie is one of them.

As to the point of not getting a starting guard, sure, we all want one, but as we all agreed at the start of yesterday, the rams had too many holes to fill them all in one draft.

If smith can be even a one year stop gap functional guard, we could hit a home run with massie.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

[Nick]

The more i think about it, the more i think that massie is the best guy left on the board and gives us real flexibility on the offensive line. We can try moving smith inside to guard or give massie a chance to compete with smith and/or develop into the starter next year when smith balloons to 11 mill in cap. Its not a perfect fit given the fact that we just agreed to guarantee smith 4 million this year, but to me, the question is whether fisher thinks smith can move inside.
In addition, from a depth perspective, both smith and saffold are coming off injuries. Another solid offensive tackle can't hurt.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

I think you've nailed it.

I'm not even thinking about projecting or moving anyone to guard with the Massie pick. My thought process is that Smith can't stay healthy/effective, he agreed to a lesser deal now but is due a $11.25 million roster bonus after this season. If he still isn't playing well, the Rams cut bait and insert Massie in 2013 after he's had a year to develop and grow. If Smith is playing well, then you've still got great tackle depth in Massie.

I know the guard position is important, but we can still address it at some point. I'm not sure there's a true guard on the board that comes anywhere close to Massie's value, and when you start moving guys around, you can sometimes do more harm than good. I'd groom Massie behind Smith and let 2012 be Smith's tryout at RT for Fisher.