If we learned anything about the St. Louis Rams and the quarterback position yesterday, it’s that Austin Davis isn’t getting it done. So where does that leave the Rams? Davis has shown potential, Sam Bradford is still on the roster, and the Rams are likely to have a top ten pick in the 2015 NFL Draft.
The St. Louis Rams have just three wins on the season to this point. In those three wins the Rams have won by a combined seven points. An obvious issue in St. Louis right now is at the quarterback situation. So what is the Rams best option? Let’s take a look at some scenarios:
Sam Bradford will be entering the final year of his rookie contract next season. The St. Louis Rams could go ahead and try to keep him, but it is unlikely they would start him in 2015 without a restructured contract. If Bradford is to play next year, he will be due around $13 mill. All Rams fans can probably agree that Sam Bradford is not a bad quarterback, but his injury issues are very frustrating. There is speculation that the Rams will try to bring back Bradford with the way the college football season is turning out and the way Austin Davis has played so far this season. There is definitely no Andrew Lucks in this next draft, there are however, a handful of serviceable QBs. No one that is going to be competing for MVP out of this draft class at least before a coaching staff will have a chance to progress them properly.
Keeping Austin Davis is also another option for the St. Louis Rams. Austin Davis has done just enough to win the starting job and excite the fans a little bit. But from his first start in week two to his most recent start in week ten, he hasn’t shown a lot of improvements. Davis still gets rattled under a decent amount of pressure and the second the Rams are down in a game he rushes through his reads and forces a ball to somewhere it doesn’t need to go. The one game this was not the case was against the Philadelphia Eagles, but to be fair, the Rams were down so far in that game that there wasn’t a lot of pressure to score as the game appeared to be over. On the final Rams drive, Davis looked to be flustered and couldn’t get it done. We’ve seen that Davis may not be the Rams best option at QB, but could be a solid option as a back up QB instead of Shaun Hill who is 34 years old. This season will likely be looked back on as that one year Austin Davis was the Rams QB and they came in last in the division.
As I wrote above, this draft class is not exactly a stellar one for the quarterback position. There are some high profile names expected to declare for the NFL this year. UCLA’s Brett Hundley, Oregon’s Marcus Mariota, Florida State’s Jameis Winston, and Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott. All of these players are having solid seasons throwing the football, but none of them really show any promise that they will have strong NFL careers. Sure it’s impossible to tell who will have a good career in the NFL or not, but there is no obvious player at the top of the draft board that a QB hungry team just has to have.
Whatever the Rams decide to do they need to figure it out as early as possible. If Austin Davis can cure his pressure situation woes it could be worth looking in to bringing him back next season. If Sam Bradford won’t break the bank and destroy the salary cap it could be worth bringing him back also. Either way, we should expect to see the Rams draft a QB at some point in this draft. For all St. Louis Rams fans sake I hope it’s before the 5th round like last year. Drafting a QB early and opening up a position battle is not a bad thing going in to next season. The worst case scenario of a three way position battle is depth. This will be an interesting offseason for the St. Louis Rams as there are many questions about the coaching staff, multiple positions on the field and even stadium location. Buckle up Rams fans, this could be a wild ride.
