RAM DRAFT PROSPECTS : Biggest Needs: Filling Defensive Line Holes
Two more collected draft choices today will close out a mile-wide file on Eric Dickerson at Ram headquarters. The ties that bound--four super seasons, one megaton tirade-and-trade, six Grade-A draft choices, one Bell that tolled (Greg)--shall hereby be forever severed after said paperwork is completed in pro football’s deal of the decade.
The payoff in the three-team trade will come with the 26th pick in the first round--compensation for Dickerson from Buffalo--and a second-round pick at No. 45, compensation from Indianapolis. The Rams have their own first-round choice at position no. 21 and two other second-round choices. When the commissioner’s gavel sounds last, they will have collected five of the first 53 prospects and 10 of the top 110 college football players in the last two seasons. Otherwise the cupboard’s bare.
Dickerson will have chipped in three first-round choices and three seconds on his own, plus tailback Bell, who scored more touchdowns than Eric the Colt last season--18 to 15--and is two years younger.
What’s more, the Rams get to parade their seven-players-for-one-Dickerson deal before 69,000 next Sept. 17 when Indianapolis opens the home schedule at Anaheim Stadium.
Just another game?
“I don’t know that my life will be any different,” Ram Coach John Robinson said of the reunion. “I’d rather win than stop Eric. Eric’s no enemy to anybody. I think it’ll be exciting. But I’ll be more excited about San Francisco, or Chicago--NFC teams.”
More fibs coming soon to a training camp near you.
In the meantime, the Rams would do well to duplicate the quality of last year’s haul, when they drafted some real, live football players in receivers Aaron Cox and Flipper Anderson, cornerback Anthony Newman, linebacker Fred Strickland and, maybe yet, tailback Gaston Green. Not to mention the steal of the draft, fullback Robert Delpino, a fifth-round pick.
BIGGEST NEEDS: This one’s easy. Defensive line. They lost 11 1/2 sacks when New England asked unprotected free agent Gary Jeter to please come to Boston. The Rams needed help even with Jeter in the lineup. So don’t shriek if the Rams spend too many high choices on beefy defensive tackles and ends.
Robinson is also looking for a top-line offensive tackle to replace his able but aging bookends, Jackie Slater and Irv Pankey, sometime in the future. After that, it’s window dressing--an inside linebacker perhaps, a backup tight end, a developmental quarterback--Robinson: “I don’t know what the hell that means. Does it mean you draft a bad one?”--and maybe a bruising fullback who might win a game on a muddy field.
BEST PROSPECTS: If Florida defensive end Trace Armstrong is still standing at No. 21, look for the Rams to throw a net around him.
Other possibilities include Texas Christian defensive tackle Mitchell Benson, a beefy, 300-pounder; Miami’s Bill Hawkins, a pass-rush specialist; defensive end Matt Brock of Oregon; Florida defensive tackle Rhondy Weston; Tennessee linebacker Keith DeLong, or even Outland Trophy winner Tracy Rocker of Auburn, whose stock is dropping in some circles. Robinson insists that Rocker is “a damn good football player.”
If the big names are gone, the Rams may bite hard and use their first choice for an offensive tack such as Notre Dame’s Andy Heck. Other tackles in the hunt are Miami’s David Williams or Ralph Norwood of Louisiana State.
