The Los Angeles Rams haven’t had too many draft mistakes in the Les Snead era since he became general manager in 2012. However, Snead made one of his worst first-round picks in 2014 when he selected offensive tackle Greg Robinson with the No. 2 overall pick.
Robinson started 42 of 46 games for the Rams, but was off the team after the 2016 season and didn’t start an NFL game after 2019. But what if the Rams could go back in time for a do-over? Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox went through this exercise with every NFL team’s worst draft pick since 2000, allowing each team to re-pick their biggest bust over the past 25 seasons.
For the Rams, Knox swapped Robinson for offensive tackle Jake Matthews, who was taken by the Atlanta Falcons with the No. 6 pick and is entering his 13th season with the team.
The Rams didn’t come out of the 2014 draft empty-handed, though. They did draft Aaron Donald with the No. 13 pick — and we all know the legendary career Donald went on to have with the team.
What is perhaps a bigger sign of the Rams’ draft excellence this century is that two other players taken by Snead were re-drafted in this exercise. Running back Todd Gurley went to the New York Giants with the No. 9 pick in 2015 (New York originally took tackle Ereck Flowers, while Gurley went one pick later to the Rams). Donald, of course, was taken by the Cleveland Browns with the No. 8 pick in 2014 instead of No. 13 by the Rams (Cleveland took cornerback Justin Gilbert with that pick in reality).
Unlike some of the other teams, the Rams didn’t make egregious mistakes that set the team back more than a couple of years. Plus, the addition of Donald in the same class as Robinson sort of offset how bad their first pick was, anyway.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams fix 2014 mistake by picking different lineman in re-draft
Reporting by Oliver G., Rams Wire / Rams Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
