St. Louis Rams would be smart to stay away from quarterbacks in Round 1

The St. Louis Rams have been entertaining quarterback prospects throughout the draft season, which has many wondering if they’d use one of their two first-round picks on a signal caller. But Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that St. Louis is leaning toward drafting a quarterback in the mid-rounds.

That’s exactly the approach to take.

First, you’ve already got Sam Bradford and plenty of holes to fill outside of the quarterback position. That No. 2 pick and that No. 13 pick can be used to address the secondary, the offensive line, the receiving corps and/or the interior of the defensive line.

Bradford is only 26 years old and was having his best season yet before tearing his ACL in October. He’s expected to be a full go by training camp and isn’t the type of player who necessarily needs to have that ligament fully back to normal right away, since he doesn’t rely on mobility.

His 90.9 passer rating ranked 11th in the league last year, and he had only four interceptions on 292 passes, which was the fourth-lowest pick rate among qualifying quarterbacks.

The former top pick deserves a chance to lead this team for what would only be his third full season as a starter.

Second, this draft is flush with talented quarterbacks, so the Rams would be silly to reach for one of the overhyped pivot prospects being pushed into the first round. The gap between Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles and guys like Tom Savage, Derek Carr, Aaron Murray and Jimmy Garoppolo just isn’t large enough.

I’d liken this to the situation the division-rival Seahawks were in only two years ago. They had Matt Flynn, who was the presumed starter, but they took a chance on a mid-round quarterback anyway. And when Flynn didn’t deliver, third-round pick Russell Wilson seized the opportunity.

That might happen here, but Bradford has to be given priority, and this is a team with too many areas of need to leap on a quarterback early.

About Brad Gagnon

Brad Gagnon has been passionate about both sports and mass media since he was in diapers -- a passion that won't die until he's in them again. Based in Toronto, he's worked as a national NFL blog editor at theScore.com (covering Super Bowls XLIV, XLV and XLVI), a producer and writer at theScore Television Network and a host, reporter and play-by-play voice at Rogers TV. His work has also appeared at Deadspin, FoxSports.com, The Guardian, The Hockey News and elsewhere at Bloguin, but his day gig has him covering all things NFC East for Bleacher Report.

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