At the mothership, Turf Show Times writer Ryan Van Bibber has a predictably realistic take on what the St. Louis Rams will do in his latest 2012 NFL Mock Draft: Trade the chance of getting Robert Griffin III for a bunch of picks or players, or, if all else fails, protect Sam Bradford with yet another offensive lineman, consensus number-two talent Matt Kalil. The Rams and their fans—who probably have offensive-line-fatigue after the disappointing years they saw from Jason Smith and Roger Saffold—would probably prefer the first option, but if teams aren't as willing to shell out for RG3 as they would have been Andrew Luck the Rams could end up giving Sam Bradford more time to stand upright, instead of more interesting options to throw at.
Kalil's increasingly filled a spot that went to Justin Blackmon in early mock drafts as draft analysts make their yearly transition from trying to figure out what a team obviously needs to balancing that with the available talent on the board. In this particular mock Van Bibber has Blackmon going fourth, to the Cleveland Browns—who, of course, have as much need as anybody to trade up for Griffin in the first place. (Griffin goes sixth, with a disclaimer that he actually won't go sixth at all. This is complex stuff, mock drafting.)