It hasn't exactly come as a shock: Since the St. Louis Rams traded Robert Griffin III to the Washington Redskins for their shiny new No. 6 pick and a large bag of other stuff, 2012 NFL Mock Draft thought, shorn of its ability to have them draft Matt Kalil and be done with it, has been assuming they'll draft Justin Blackmon. Now, a challenger approaches: Trent Richardson, the canonical Cleveland Browns pick, has a private workout scheduled with the Rams.
Predictably, I'm less than assured by the development. The Rams already have an excellent running back, and while drafting his replacement will have to happen eventually it should be worrying to fans of hard-nose smash-mouth otherwise-hyphenated football that Steven Jackson, Trent Richardson's eventual best-case scenario, was unable to keep the Rams from the No. 2 spot in the draft.
That's the problem: Running backs just aren't quite that valuable, and they aren't that different from each other. They exist in a weird place between truly important quarterbacks and, say, tight ends.
- Of course, with the Cleveland Browns potentially out of Justin Blackmon the Rams might not have a chance to make a mistake and draft Richardson.
- That's the Everybody Drafts Like Their Stereotype mock draft.
- Meanwhile, at the back of the draft, NFL Mock Draft 2012: Jonathan Martin Drops—Potentially To St. Louis Rams?