I recently had the pleasure of researching and buying a new car for my wife. With nearly 200k miles on her old Saturn and the AC starting to go, the warm weather put me on the clock. While her overwhelming favorite was a Hyundai Elantra, I channeled Rams GM Les Snead and broke down the purchase options in the name of due diligence.
Throughout the process, I was forced to weed out dealers who shot up the board based on phony incentives or bogus prices. It was hard work bypassing the classic bait and switch and bogus dealers advertising prices nearly impossible to actually receive. But after a few weeks of research, a few test drives and countless emails, we finally found the right car for the right price at the right dealership.
Jeff Fisher and St. Louis Rams are in the market for a different type of wheels. With the NFL draft taking place tonight, team officials have had plenty of time to kick the tires, peruse the features, examine the warranty options, and study the specs. The team has even taken a few potential selections out for a test drive via special workout. Now it’s finally time to make their selections, drive off the lot and pray they didn’t buy a bunch of lemons.
Many new Rams fans are hoping the team will come home with Justin Blackmon, the shiny award-winning wide receiver out of Oklahoma STate or Trent Richardson, the full-featured running back from Alabama. Both are considered to be worthy investments that would give the team plenty of bang for its buck. Of course the draft is unpredictable and both could be gone by the time the Rams make a selection with the No. 6 overall pick.
Hopefully the new front office crew has learned from past failed regimes who routinely fell for the old tricks of the trade. In selecting Donnie Avery over DeSean Jackson in 2008, the Rams ignored the game film and chose Avery due to his superior 40 yard-dash time at the combine. Other failed high-value selections such as Trung Candidate, Robert Thomas, Jimmy Kennedy, Tye Hill and Alex Barron litter the garbage can of wasted Rams picks. Also gone are Steve Spagnuolo’s “four pillars” which caused the Rams to pass on talented players who may not have been model citizens in college but turned out to be phenomenal pros.
But with a new era comes new hope. Fisher and Snead come to the Rams with an air of confidence. Snead proved his mettle by dealing the No. 2 overall pick for three No. 1s earlier this offseason. Instead of showing up at the draft and waiting for the dealer aka agent to sell them on a purchase, the team looks to be well-prepared for the task at hand.
In the meantime, Rams’ players and fans will undoubtedly tune in to tonight’s draft and hope the team drives away with a long-lasting, high-performance hot rod. With the league’s rookie wage scale, purchase price is no longer a concern. But armed with a roster half-filled with jalopies and still haunted by the ghosts of a listless past, the team can’t afford to blow another draft with poor selections.
Thanks to Chris Miller at Dean Team Hyundai! Follow In the Clutch on Twitter @intheclutchstl and online at www.stlamerican.com.
