Cheers to the Clan & my 1st mock draft

[RamOfDenmark]

I've just joined the Clan. I'm not all new to the place though, I've been hanging around just reading for about a year, so I already feel like I know a lot of you, but of course none of you know me yet

Short intro, as my name might indicate I'm from across the pond, Denmark to be a little more precise. I've been a fan of the Rams for about 6 years. Marshall Faulk is my alltime favorite player, always will be. He's the reason I even started watching football, I tuned in to a couple of games back when Faulk was in his prime and the Greatest Show on Turf was still rolling and I've stood by the team ever since.

Now for the draft talk, I've read a few other mock drafts and now I'm gonna add my own, focusing on the Rams choices. I've found a number of players that I would take in each round and ordered them according to how much I feel they would add to the team, I.E the first player on the list is the one I'd want on the team the most etc. I'll limit my focus to the first 3 rounds as my knowledge of the talent deeper down in the draft pool is very limited.

1st round board:

A. J. Hawk (LB)
Michael Huff (S)
Vernon Davis (TE)
Haloti Ngata (DT)
Broderick Bunkley (DT)

Notes: I would welcome a trade up to around the 5th or 6th spot to grab Hawk, or even a trade up to around the 8th or 9th spot to get Huff, I believe they are the only 2 players we should trade up for in the 1st. I would take either of the last 3 on my board with the 11th pick with a big smile on my face if one or more of them dropped. It would be very hard for me to choose between Ngata and Davis if both were available though, they are neck and neck on my board. If all 5 players are off the board at #11, I really think trading down would be in our best interest. I agree with the genereal consensus that there seems to be a significant drop in quality from approximately the top 10 players to the following 10-15 players. I would be disappointed to see us pick Cutler or Greenway as some people think we might. I don't see QB as a need and a have a bad gut feeling about Greenway, I'm not sure he will get it done on the pro level, at least not to the extent that he will provide adequate value for a #11.

2nd and 3rd round board:

Leonard Pope (TE)
Thomas Howard (LB)
Donte Whitner (S)
Marcedes Lewis (TE)
John McCargo (DT)
Daniel Bullocks (S)
Anthony Fasano (TE)
Joel Klopfenstein (TE)

In the 2nd and 3rd rounds I see a lot of good safety and tight end prospects, as well as a few linebackers and defensive tackles. I would focus on TE and S mainly. Between all the prospects on my board some of them are almost sure to be available to us. Going TE in the 2nd might be a good idea, even though there are many good TE's in this draft I feel there'll be a run on them in the late 2nd/early 3rd before we pick, so we might have to spend our 2nd to get the one we need, even if that means reaching slightly. Going for a safety first would be perfectly reasonable too though, especially if Pope is off the board.

Cheers to everyone at the Clan, I look forward to talking to all of you in the future!

[Bar-bq]

Wow. Good first post, and i think you summed it al up nicely. I agree that trading down to find a player like Bobby Carppenter or Cromatie would be a great option, especially if Jay Cutler is on the board by the time we pick.

[RamOfDenmark]

Yeah, if we do trade down I agree Carpenter would be an interesting prospect. As for Cromartie, if we could convert him to safety and if he's 100% after his injury he could be a steal for us if we traded down, at least from what I've heard he could have been a top pick if not for the injury. I'm not sure how well Cromartie projects as a safety though, maybe someone else would venture a guess. The reason I'm talking about converting him to safety is I really don't see CB as a big need for us. Out of Fahkir Brown, Jerametrius Butler, Ron Bartell and Travis Fisher I'm sure we'll be able to find a couple of adequate starters, someone will step up.

On a slightly related note I hope we stay away from Jimmy Williams, I don't like what I'm hearing about his personality issues. Especially after just reading about Ricky Williams' suspension for the entire 2006 season I've become quite convinced to stay away from questionable personalities in the draft, unless we're talking about a later round boom-or-bust type pick.

[RealRam]

Welcome to the Clan, RODenmark! :clanram: Excellent post, your opener.

D-day has gotten me all excited and, with the exception of TE Vernon Davis and DB Michael Huff, I have the same players you have for our 1st selection. Plus the possibility of LBs Chad Greenway or Carpenter.

I'm so glad this unique and great Clan Web site unites Ramdiehard fans from so far away!

[Goldenfleece]

I wouldn't be thrilled if we got Jimmy Williams either. As far as Cromartie goes, I heard somewhere the coaching staff was thinking of moving Bartell over to safety, so if that happened I'd think we'd want Cromartie at CB. I like the idea of trading down if we can't manage to get any of our top choices. Personally I'm not as concerned about safety as I am about the strongside linebacker, but most of the best candidates for that (other than Hawk) will go in the latter half of the first. Totally agree about the TE's.