The St. Louis Rams won't be making the playoffs for the first time since Kurt Warner brought down stone tablets with a lot of weird passing plays on them from Mt. Sinai, but they will have this: A cushy spot in the 2011 Draft order. (Mock drafters, take note.) The Rams move from 21—where they would have been if they beat the Seattle Seahawks and made it into the NFC Playoffs—to 14. That puts them near the Detroit Lions in the NFL Draft again, but further back than either team is accustomed.
↵Given the problem spots that the average 7-9 team possesses—and the St. Louis Rams are, undoubtedly, an average 7-9 team—this move forward is an important one, and a real advantage for the Rams over their erstwhile playoff rivals the Seahawks. This shouldn't be how draft seeding works—nobody can reasonably be under the impression that the Seahawks are less in need of young talent than the New York Giants or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, picking 19th and 20th—but as of last year it is, and the Rams have a good chance to take advantage of it.
↵Pick 14 is still as far back as the Rams have been since they took Tye Hill with the 16th pick in the 2006 draft, but after years picking first and second it's a veritable wasteland of talent. Here's hoping they find some wide receivers at 14 that they wouldn't get at 21.
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