Analysis : Rams Take Quick Fix
The Rams passed on a quarterback, took an offensive tackle, and as Coach Chuck Knox repeatedly said Monday, “Time will tell.”
Time will tell if Chuck Knox remains coach of the Rams after this season.
This year’s NFL draft, which included the Rams’ contribution to better days ahead in Tampa Bay with Trent Dilfer at quarterback, pivoted on this team’s willingness to give Knox a fighting chance to remain employed.
Dilfer’s selection, as Knox pointed out Wednesday, was the obvious choice for the Rams’ long-term success. Carolina and Jacksonville will have the top two picks next year and will be trolling for a starting quarterback.
The selection of Dilfer, at the very least, could have provided fodder for trade talks with Carolina and Jacksonville next season.
At best Dilfer was there if Chris Miller’s knee, which has been surgically repaired twice in the last two years, gave way. At the very best the Rams had a quarterback the likes of Rick Mirer and Drew Bledsoe to carry them into the next century.
Time will tell if Dilfer has the skills to become a franchise quarterback, but Knox has no such time, and so the Rams addressed the pressing needs that will give them a chance to be successful this season.
“Tell me that I have three more years on my contract and I say, ‘Take Dilfer,’ ” said one of the Ram assistant coaches. “But I’ve got one year to win or I’m not here next season.”
Knox and his assistant coaches are working on two-year contracts, but they are aware that John Shaw, the team’s executive vice president, considered making a move on Norv Turner after last season before Turner became Washington’s coach.
They hear the rumors, and they are aware that former Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson, who will be working up the highway for the Fox Television Network, is a likely candidate to renew interest in a franchise that either will move or opt to remain in place after threatening to move.
Knox & his staff must win in 1994, and putting a clipboard in Dilfer’s hands does nothing to contribute to such success. A left offensive tackle, a wide receiver and a strong safety are the immediate answers.
The quick fix versus Dilfer.
The Rams had Michigan State quarterback Jim Miller ranked as a potential second-round choice, and while John Becker, the team’s director of player personnel, had to be restrained, the team ignored him in favor of immediate help.
The Pittsburgh Steelers took Miller in the sixth round shortly after the Rams had made their ninth pick--Oklahoma tight end Rickey Brady to fill the vacancy left by Pat Carter, who signed with Houston. The quick fix.
Before the draft the front office said there was no decision to be made: As everyone in the NFL knows, if a top-rated quarterback remains on the board, a team must take him.
Knox, who ordinarily won’t confirm what day of the week it is, went public five days before the draft and said the same thing. In hindsight, this break in character was more a reminder to his peers to do the right thing and (please) take a quarterback, than it was a revelation of what was to come.
Knox expected Heath Shuler and Dilfer to be gone. He counted on it. Fact is, an hour before the draft, Knox told a reporter he had Indianapolis with the second choice taking Shuler, and Washington with the third pick getting Dilfer. No quarterback for the Rams to take, thank heavens.
The chaos that followed then was not all that surprising.
The Rams didn’t want Dilfer and then Dallas owner Jerry Jones told them they couldn’t have wide receiver Alvin Harper. And still they didn’t want Dilfer.
They passed on the quarterback with Shaw acquiescing to Knox’s request for immediate help, although Dilfer would undoubtedly have increased this franchise’s value in upcoming discussions to move.
“There was absolutely no disagreement at any time about the course of action we were going to pursue,” Knox said. “There was none, absolutely none. . . . As far as the decision that was made, it was a unanimous decision.”
The future be damned. The Rams backpedaled to the seventh position and then fooled themselves into thinking they could still deal with Jones for Harper.
Spurned again by Jones, they moved back to 15 and took Gandy, although their own homework showed such a move to be foolhardy.
The Rams’ coaching staff had conducted a survey and found only two offensive tackles picked in the first round dating back to 1988 had successfully held their ground: Tampa’s Paul Gruber and New Orleans’ Willie Roaf.
Armed with such information, the coaches insisted on trading for Houston tackle Kevin Donnalley. Houston balked, Gandy became the projected starting left tackle and now someone is going to have to hide that survey from Chris Miller.
The decision to pass on Dilfer, while debatable, is not as troubling as the Rams’ panic and ensuing retreat in Round 1. Who knows if Gandy & Co., will fulfill expectations? The Rams finished 5-11, had the fifth pick in the draft and today their prospects for success rest on the back of a player (Gandy) who has a defect in his spine, according to team doctors.
The Rams not only passed on Dilfer but ignored blue-chip defenders such as Nebraska linebacker Trev Alberts and Alabama cornerback Antonio Langham. They gave Notre Dame defensive lineman Bryant Young to rival San Francisco.
No single player was going to save Knox & Co.; it was going to take an army of draft picks.
“Time will tell whether we were right or not,” Knox said. “That’s what it is all about.”
That’s what this draft was all about.