Rolling The Dice

The Los Angeles Rams have been one of the top stories during this off-season in the National Football League. After 21 years of playing in St. Louis, Missouri, Rams owner Stan Kroenke decided to move the franchise back to Los Angeles which had been the team’s home from 1946-1994. And if that wasn’t enough for the Rams, they pulled off a shocker last week when they decided to push all of their chips to the middle of the table for the NFL Draft next week. Originally the Rams owned the 15th overall pick in the NFL Draft, but they decided to make a trade with the Tennessee Titans in order to obtain the first overall pick of the draft. The Rams will receive Tennessee’s first, fourth, and round choices next week, while Los Angeles will be parting with their first-round pick, a pair of selections in the second round, and a third-round pick this year, along with their first and third-round selections for next year which puts immense pressure on the Rams to wins right now.

Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Jeff Fisher are each entering the final year of their respective contracts, and they are working for an owner in Kroenke who doesn’t have a stellar reputation as far as compensating his executives. And being that the Rams are back in Los Angeles, they will once again be under the microscope as they’ll be playing in the second largest media market in the United States.

The reason why the Rams moved up in the National Football League Draft is due to their desperation to find a franchise quarterback. In four years under Fisher, the Rams have never had a quarterback whom they could refer to as a franchise player. And it is no surprise that over that stretch the Rams have failed to produce a winning record. Overall the Rams have not had a winning record since 2003 while they’ve failed to reach the postseason since 2004 which is the fourth longest active streak in the NFL.

Now with the first overall pick, the Rams have their sights set on either California Bears quarterback Jared Goff or North Dakota State Bison quarterback Carson Wentz. Goff checks in at 6’4″, while Wentz is 6’5″. Both players have the prototypical size to play quarterback in the National Football League, but is either player worthy of being the first overall pick next week?

Goff played in a pass-happy offensive system of head football coach Sonny Dykes at California which doesn’t translate to the pro-style offense that he’ll need to adjust to in the National Football League. Wentz is heading to the NFL after spending his collegiate career at a Division-II school and you have to wonder if the lack of competition will hinder him as he is ascending to a professional career?

With more than a week to go before the National Football League Draft, the Rams are still unsure as to whether it will be Goff or Wentz whom they’ll pick, but in actuality, Los Angeles could have stuck with the 15th overall selection and gotten a solid quarterback there. However the Rams allowed themselves to be controlled by the elephant in the room which is fear.

The Cleveland Browns own the second overall pick in the draft, and even though that they signed quarterback Robert Griffin III this off-season, it is not out of the realm of possibilities to see them still select a signal caller next week. The Dallas Cowboys own the fourth overall pick and with an aging and injury prone Tony Romo playing quarterback for them, there is a chance that Dallas will pick a quarterback. After making a trade with the Miami Dolphins, the Philadelphia Eagles now own the eighth overall selection. And with the Eagles hiring Doug Pederson as their new head coach, there is a pretty good possibility that they’ll be looking for a signal caller as well.

The Titans came into the process owning the first overall pick which has been historically reserved for selecting a quarterback. But that wasn’t going to be the case for Tennessee as they drafted their cornerstone in quarterback Marcus Mariota last year which meant that they held all of the cards. And it is that fear of the Browns, Cowboys, Eagles, or another team moving up to make a run on the quarterback position which has forced the Rams hand in this draft process.

Snead and Fisher are desperate to keep their respective jobs which also gives them the chance to bask in the Southern California sunshine which means that you can expect the young quarterback that they select to be under center for them in Week 1 of the regular season against the San Francisco 49ers which will only add to the pressure as it could make or break the youngster.

But what Goff and Wentz represent are the new National Football League where teams are more desperate than ever for find a quarterback whom they can deem as their franchise guy. This isn’t a situation where the Denver Broncos pulled off the trade of the century to acquire the draft rights to quarterback John Elway from the Baltimore Colts in 1983, or when the New York Giants sold the farm in 2004 to acquire a disgruntled quarterback in Eli Manning from the San Diego Chargers, as to me neither Wentz or Goff represent a franchise-caliber quarterback. What it does represent is the new NFL which is similar to an SAT exam which comes down to choosing the best option available. Since 2010, 16 quarterbacks have been been selected in the first round of the draft. Of those 16 quarterbacks, only eight of them are still with their original team, while two in Tim Tebow and Christian Ponder are out of the league altogether which doesn’t bode well for either Wentz or Goff who don’t have the pedigree of being franchise quarterbacks.

The Rams have rolled the dice in moving up in the National Football League Draft which has opened to door for the Titans, who if they hit this draft process with precision over the next two years could build a solid team around their franchise quarterback in Mariota which could make the decision by Los Angeles to pull the trigger on this move that much more questionable. And without possessing a first round pick in next year’s draft process, the pressure will be on the Rams next Thursday as they look to avoid having their new stint in Southern California begin like their previous one did which was with a whimper.