ESPN.com’s Matt Mosley offered this assessment:
“Sort of shocking to see Houston’s Donnie Avery become the first receiver taken in this draft. If you had him in your top five in the mock draft, you’re lying. I met Avery at the combine. He has elite speed (4.25) and he’s an excellent kid. Kudos to agents Vann McElroy and Graylin Crain. They’ve been talking Avery up for months. And when they told me he could go early in the second round, I thought they were just being typical agents. The second pick in the second round? Are you kidding me?
“Michigan State’s Devin Thomas, projected as high as No. 11 on some mocks, was the next pick after Avery. The Redskins had taken a long look at Oklahoma’s Malcolm Kelly and Kansas State’s Jordy Nelson, another McElroy client. Nelson just went to the Green Bay Packers at 36.”
Should the Rams have taken Thomas? Perhaps. It will be fun to see how all these receivers pan out.
Tom…
Wow, nice blog….
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kmac,
You have no clue how good or bad we will be next year. If you do then you should be able to place football bets all year and make millions…Good Luck with that. Its nice to see that the fans in St. Louis are so optomistic (wonder why the cards left?). Enjoy your shitty football season. I on the other hand enjoy every game next season win or loss and just hope they gel and pull out the W’s.
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Hey other Robert. It’s George Boone, not Young
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One last thing from nfldraftcountdown:
Bernie from his message board on Avery…
Quote:
* He isn’t as raw as some are suggesting.
* Henry Ellard worrked him out personally, twice, and put a great grade on this guy…
* Saunders told the brass when asked that he’s the guy who best fits what he’s trying to do, because he wants to put him in the slot (at first) and make defenses be accountable for his speed. Al wants to be able to spread that defense. Which makes a helluva lot of sense to me. Unless you all want to see more of the same, slow, plodding BS we were treated to last year.
* He has a chance to be a real threat as a KOR.
Call me silly, but I’ll take the word over the great WR Henry Ellard and a pretty damned good offensive football coach (Saunders) over some insta-draft experts on this here Internet board.
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Someone is hitting the crack pipe if the war room!
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Another post from nfldraftcountdown by NGSeiler:
I’m fine with this. The Rams needed to add speed to their receiver corps. Holt is losing his speed because of his knee injury. Bennett is a tall guy, not incredibly fast. Caldwell isn’t going to burn you. Avery is one of the fastest guys in the draft, and he has better size than Jackson.
It seems obvious that NFL teams don’t view this WR class as having a lot of top talent. Devin Thomas went right after we took Avery, but then the Packers took Jordy Nelson. Right now Jackson, Sweed, and Hardy are still on the board. Jackson’s weight is probably worrying some teams. Sweed’s injury could be the cause of his slip. Hardy has off the field character concerns.
Avery has elite quickness and is a deep threat. He has a lot of starting experience in college and was very productive. His ability to change direction is considered to be top notch. He needs to work on his route running and his ability to beat the jam at the line, but those are the kinds of things that can be taught. Legitimate 4.3 speed cannot. I think he’ll be a good fit in Saunders’ scheme, definitely a guy who could be a weapon in multiple receiver sets.
Again, the fact that Jordy Nelson got picked over Jackson, Sweed, Hardy demonstrates that NFL boards may not have had the WRs valued in the same manner as most fans and some analysts.
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Here’s a post by paranoidmoonduck on the nfldraftcountdown forum about this:
I guess it shouldn\’t be that surprising. This draft had a lot of two things. It had a lot of small speedy guys and a lot of inconsistent big guys. The only guy bridging the gap was Devin Thomas, who most had #1 as a result, and his inconsistent hands knocked him down a few boards.
Keep this in mind: Avery is the quickest player that may have been in any draft in a really long time. His pro day numbers were unfathomable. His 3-cone time (6.30) was .15 faster than the best time anyone could find from any year. His short shuttle was 3.91. He isn\’t the best route runner, but no one at the top was. He catches the ball well, finds the open spot decently, and he\’s an absolute monster with the ball in his hands (better than both Jackson\’s, Royal, and anyone else you care to name, in my opinion).
After a year where a guy like Wes Welker constantly tore up the underside of defenses, is this really that surprising?
To drive home the 3-cone thing, the closest anyone came to Avery at the combine was a 6.57. The best time that was found from any year (thanks to DG), was Charles Rogers, who got a 6.45.
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Hey there all you “experts”. On all the boards I’ve been on, this is by far the most negative one regarding this pick. I guess I should have known by the title of it. Anyway, here’s an article from the draft expert of the Sporting News that was published two days before the draft. He’s a former scout for multiple teams. I’m thinking he might know a little bit more about the topic than us armchair experts on this here internet board.
Here’s the url if you want to check it out for yourself:
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=403984
Draft Dish: Houston’s Avery rockets up WR ranks
Posted: April 24, 2008
When talking about the top wide receivers in the 2008 NFL draft, there has been much talk about the falling stock of both Michigan’s Mario Manningham and Oklahoma’s Malcolm Kelly. Meanwhile, Michigan’s Devin Thomas has been the biggest riser up draft boards.
One receiver who should be talked about more, however, is Houston’s Donnie Avery. Avery, viewed as somewhat of a raw receiver even after the ‘07 college football season ended, was once likely to be a third-round pick. Since then, however, his strong performances at the Senior Bowl — where he took coaching so well to improve his game throughout the week — at the Combine and in his personal workouts have caused teams to value him higher.
Avery’s value shot up even more when teams in their draft meetings could get a better look at his acceleration, speed and elite explosiveness on game film. Now, he should be one of the first speed receivers drafted, possibly as high as the late first round.
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All the blogs I’ve read above are negative. Yes I was a season ticket holder for the old “Big Red” and I remember the really bad choices, Duncan, Zark, and on, but to say this pick is “Bad” is judging in advance the choices of the past. This is an elite wide receiver with speed and the ability to run away from defenses, that being said, all we can do is wait and see what this young man can do down the road. Then is two years we can judge good or bad.
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Bill – other teams / sites blogs are easy to find. this one is tame to many of the others.
No reason to be embarrassed about the posts here. the embarrassment will be on the field.
McArd – paper bags will be used to cover PSL holders faces, not to avoid hyperventilation.
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Avery might have been a reach that high but there’s no way he would have lasted until the 6th round. I’ve watched him for a couple seasons at Houston now and he’s going to be a solid player for the Rams. He’s an absolute game changer and has huge big play ability. I’m sure many of you have never even seen him play but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
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Ed – this is a friggin’ blog. Nobody reads that amount of drivel. even if it isn’t drivel.
The unabashed support of the team by some of you guys would be humorous if it wasn’t so sad. As stated in an earlier blog, if you don’t like reading other peoples opinions – step off.
Waiting years to see how it turns out defeats the purpose of having an active blog.
Maybe we should spend our time writing about the ‘03 and 04 draft results…
thank goodness the Rams don’t pick for a while. They can’t hose up another pick for at least an hour or so.
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Robert; George Boone worked for the Big Red, not George Young.
And for the rest of you Draft geeks; grab a paper bag and take a few drags.
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Can the rams trade Linehan for a late 7th rounder?
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Lets give Avery a chance… Can anybody say “Steve Smith”!!!!!! Hopefully that same kind of receiver…
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I am certainly not an expert, but I was pretty amazed at the Rams second pick since I had never heard of him. They need help on their offensive line. That was their biggest problem last year. They should have gotten that help first, then taken Avery or Franklin, the speedy receiver from Mizzou, in a later round. They seem to have their priorities mixed.
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Any team that hires Scott Linehan is totally out of touch. Any team that keeps Scott Linehan
after the 2 previous years of dispair is out of touch. This bizarre second round draft pick
only proves what a joke this franchise has become. 4-12 sounds about right for 2008.
PLEASE SAVE US CHIP!!!!! FIRE THEM ALL AND START OVER!!!
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At least one team in the state of Missouri can draft football talent. Today the Rams showed why the good teams stay good and the bad stay bad. Drafting Long over Dorsey when your defensive cordinator called Dorsey “a monster inside, he’s a guy that comes around once in a decade is tough to stomach. Scott again has shown he out of touch with the needs of this team, let the defensive cordinator run his defensive.
It’s not hard to believe Linehan made our 2rd pick as well, we all remember those great picks in Linehan first draft, Tye Hill and Joe Klopfenstein. Hey Scott, since you think we don’t need a Stud DT, then you should have drafted a LB that can tackle. Chris Long won’t make many tackles up the gut and down field as were acustom to seeing. But no, lets draft a WR that we could have got in the 4-5rd.
At least there’s a bright side to his incompotence, this will be Linehan’s last draft, too bad this franchise will pay for years to come for his blunders.
Round 3 Scott take a Linebacker or Safety, that’s another thing Scott won’t do. Let’s take the tenth rated OT and build for the future. Bravo Scott Bravo.
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Terry,
your guarantee that Avery would not of been drafted means nothing. How can you gaurantee that a player won’t be drafted when you have no clue who is going to draft who. Unless your mock draft is exactly on …. every player to every team and even trades. then shut the hell up and stop making stupid guarantees.
I have never been so embarassed to be Rams fan in 28 yrs and its not cause of the team. It is because of all of the whiny ass fans. I hope other teams fans don’t read this crap
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Ed, I feel sorry for you man. You poor, brain dead, Ram clone you. I can’t believe you just compared this pick to Mario Williams over Reggie Bush. Mario was a top three pick on every draft board in the league, this kid would have been on the board Sunday at 2:00. I guarantee you, Avery would have lasted at least six rounds and most likely been a free agent after the draft. Martz was a genius compared to this turd.
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Back in April 2000 the Rams picked Trung Canidate with the 31st selection of the NFL Draft. The Rams chose him because of his superior speed. Here we are 8 years later and the Rams have chosen Donnie Avery with the 33rd selection of the NFL Draft because of his superior speed. We all know how well Trung Canidate worked out. Avery is Linehan’s Trung Canidate. This is a horrible pick.
Two years from now Isaac Bruce will still be catching TD’s even at his advanced age. Two years from now Avery will be lucky if he still has a job returning kicks. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is working at the car wash 5 years from how. When you have the 33rd pick in the draft you need to select somoen who will make a major contribution to your team.
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Maybe you should read the book. You might learn something.
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I’m about to have a seizure man. I have to walk away from this team for good. I just can’t sit back and watch this kind of stupidity anymore. I can’t continue to sink my hard earned dollar in this joke of an organization. I’m sorry guys, but this was the last straw. I’m joining Ron, this team can move back to California if they want. They won’t have another penny from me though.
Good Luck Ram fans.
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I didn’t read the book Ed, but come on man. Nobody is slighting the player. He just had no business being picked at 33 overall. If you wanted the 11th best receiver in the draft, you probably could have signed him on Monday or Tuesday this week. You didn’t need to pass on linemen, linebackers, corners, safeties and even a project quarterback . There was no reason to reach this early man. We have way too many needs for that. Our defense has more holes than a slice of swiss and do we even need to talk about the offensive line from a year ago? just duuuuuuhhhhh
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I think that some of us Rams fans have become cynical through some of the insanity of the Martz years, and rightfully so, but I think that it is ridiculous to judge this player before any of us know much about him. Let’s see him on the field first. Obviously they could have taken any WR at this spot and there was something that they saw in him or didn’t see in the other WR’s availiable that they wanted. They chose to take Avery for some tangible reason. I don’t think that it was because they want to loose or are trying to look foolish. Obviously none of the WR’s available this year were incredibly impressive because it’s the first time in history that none were taken in the first round. Many of the draft know-it-alls said that there is very little separation in ability of the top 15 WR’s available. So it’s not like we just passed up Calvin Johnson to take some slapnuts. I also think it is utterly ridiculous to say that in a best case scenario, if he turns into the next coming of Torry Holt, that the Rams wasted this pick. So you wouldn’t spend a second round pick on a player if you know that he was going to be as good as Torry? That’s just a ridiculous statement. Odds are that this probably doesn’t happen, but stop the insanity with statements like that. What if the Rams scouted Donnie Avery perfectly and he does outperform the other WR’s chosen behind him. If the Rams traded down and missed Avery, the guy they really wanted, then took another WR with a lower pick and he stunk, would that be successful drafting? No. Apparently Avery’s agent had him projected high in the second round and the Rams were not the only team interested. There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we are not privy to. The bottom line is, you cannot truly judge these drafts until at least when the season starts and many times a year or two or three down the line. I remember the Ram’s last A-rated draft when they had three 1st round picks and everyone was so excited about it. These three 1st rounders: Damione Lewis, Adam Archuleta, and Ryan Pickett… Not so impressive now. Just becuase the “experts” have these “magic” draft boards doesn’t really mean jack diddle. We see every single year in the draft more busts than not past the first half of the first round throughout the NFL, so you can take your “expert” draft boards and throw them out the window as far as I’m concerned because they are about as accurate as the weatherman. Looking at the other side of the coin, it encourages me that the Rams saw something in this kid to force their hand an make them choose him. Do you really think that they were’nt aware of other team’s draft boards? They knew that they would have to explain this pick and they were willing to do it because they perceive that Avery has value. I’m intrigued to watch this kid play and see what we have. Are any of the other WR’s slam dunks? Definitely not! Odds are that MOST of them will fail or be marginal players. That’s the reality of the NFL Draft. It’s way, way to early to say Avery is a bad pick. He’s from a smaller school so we don’t know much about him, but I do know that guys who run 4.2 40-times and can jump 37 1/2 inches straight up in the air don’t grow on trees. Give the kid a chance. What if he’s actually good? There is also the character issue which I haven’t even touched on and we know nothing about. This may have been an important factor as well. Can anyone say Lawrence Phillips? One more parting shot… Where are all the draft “geniuses” that were bashing the Texans relentlessly for taking Mario Williams instead of Reggie Bush? Not so vocal now, are they? The bottom line is that hype does not make success in the NFL. The Rams chose Donnie Avery in spite of the “hype” of the other players. This shows me some commitment to their scouting, which I admire. If you ran a pro football team doing every suggestion of the average fan, you would quickly become the worst team in the history of the league. I’m going to suspend my judgment on this pick until I see him on the field and I would humbly suggest that other Rams fans do the same.
Don’t believe the hype!
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If the Avery pick isn’t stupid enough, how about Henne getting a call from the Rams that said they were picking him? That is really making me wonder, did terrorists take over the Rams war room? Did they leave Linehan a list while they all went home for the evening? Maybe he accidentally picked up the list of guys they were going to try sign as free agents after the draft. If there was a single sports writer in St. Louis with any guts, they would be all over this. Lets call for some heads tonight.
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Like everyone else I was surprised by the Avery pick. On the bright side no NFL team really thought any of these receivers were 1st round caliber. Most of the big names slipped to late 2nd round with other no-names being picked ahead of them. So witth this receiver class it seems that it is in the eye of the beholder. The Rams wanted speed and Avery fits that bill. Seems like a nice slot kind of receiver. The real question is will he develop into a top 2 WR?
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YES
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I choked on my hot wing with that pick. How can these idiots go to bed tonight knowing they have to pick some more players tomorrow and have no idea what they are doing. They only picked Long because everyone in the league said it was the right pick. Then Linny names him starter on draft day. Nice job dummy, the player has more polish than you. At least let him put on the pads first. I think I’m done with this clown organization.
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Ummm Ron? Nobody wants your PSLs, but thanks. Maybe when the Rams fire Linny after another terrible season and bring in Marshall Faulk or Howie Long to replace him, we’ll take another look.
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SHADES OF THE STL FOOTBALL CARDINALS. WHERN DID gEORGE YOUNG RESURFACE? WHY DIDN’T THE RAMS JUST PICK CLYDE DUNCAN?
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THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE!
THEY HAD THE BEST WR IN THE DRAFT AVAILABLE, AND THEY LET HIM OFF THE HOOK!
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I have been a Rams fan for over 36 years. I have seen them do some really dumb things but this makes no sense. For the same reasons as everyone has said but I wonder what the players are thinking when they see their FO make these kind of decisions? The commitment to winning includes more than the players busting their backsides on the field. They have to believe the FO is dedicated to winning and willing to do their homework. Man this was a confusing choice.
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4 PSL’s for sale. Round 1 was a good pick round two made absolutely no sense. Not going to continue to pay for stupidity (he would have been available in the 3rd round and possibly not even drafted this is CRAZY); and you want me and others to pay for this insanity; don’t think so.
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From a value standpoint this was just a terrible pick – completely indefensible. Even if Avery really is the best WR in the draft class (which most pundits and teams don’t seem to believe) he certainly would’ve been on the board when the Rams picked again in the 3rd and maybe even the 4th. With the injury concerns on the offensive line and the lack of quality depth in the secondary and at DT we would have been much better off taking a player at one of those positions and waiting on Avery. This is just unbelievable (and not in a good way).
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Scouting Report from ESPN.com
‘This is a substantial reach in our opinion. There’s a lot to like about Avery’s speed and he’s a big-play threat whether he’s catching the ball down field, running after the catch or in the return game. However, he’s an undersized receiver who’s going to get pushed around and doesn’t appear comfortable going over the middle. Finally, he has a lot of work to do to improve his route running. ‘
The 33rd pick? This guy would’ve been available at 133.. It’ll be interesting to see in a couple years how many Pro Bowlers were picked after the 2nd pick in the second round when the next Az Hakim is looking for a delivery job….
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Did the Rams reach? Look at prior post and it is 90% yes. Could and should have gotten him much later. Got 4 Rams PSL’s for sale any takers?
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Lok at prior posts; this is one of the worst if not the worst choice the Rams have ever made. Even if, best case scenario he is the 2nd coming of T. Holt, he could have been taken later. This truly shows the Rams incompetnece in drafting players. I have4 PSL’s and was happy wiht the choice of Long; not with Avery; want to buy my PSL’s?
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