The 2012 NFL Mock Draft industry has lurched into its last month, and with the top three picks all but settled the attention has turned to the consensus next-three-picks—Morris Claiborne, Justin Blackmon, Trent Richardson—and their new, position-dependent interloper, quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Everything comes down to this: What will the Cleveland Browns do? If they take one of the established three, the draft will move as expected. If they take Tannehill—well, anything could happen.
Turf Show Times has a good summary of what that could mean for The St. Louis Rams, selecting at No. 6; if somebody picks Tannehill, they'd suddenly be able to make a choice between whichever of the two second-tier guys the Tampa Bay Buccaneers leave for them, instead of being stuck with the last one remaining. They might even end up with Matt Kalil, though that seems exceedingly unlikely.
More pragmatically, it leaves them with a slightly better chance of ending up with Justin Blackmon. Which is all I can ask for.
SB Nation St. Louis is conducting its own 2012 NFL Mock Draft pick-by-pick leading up to the draft. Here's more draft recaps and analysis handpicked from our storystream:
- If Blackmon goes off the board, could the Rams gamble on Michael Floyd or even Stephen Hill?
- Forget about the other rumors: The Redskins traded up for a reason, and that was to get Robert Griffin III.
- And gambling on the second quarterback has a great success rate. Though I'm not sure about reaching for the third quarterback.