A year ago, the St. Louis Rams were preparing for their 78th season in the National Football League. They had just traded former 1st overall pick and quarterback Sam Bradford to the Philadelphia Eagles in exchange for quarterback Nick Foles, who had been with the Eagles for the last couple seasons. A year, an NFL owners’ vote, and a trade up the draft later, and the new era is officially under way for the reestablished Los Angeles Rams. Longtime Rams owner Stan Kroenke decided that it would be in the organization’s best interest to move back after originally leaving Los Angeles back in 1994 for the Gateway to the West. If that wasn’t enough of an era change, the Rams later traded up to acquire the 1st overall pick in Thursday’s draft from the Tennessee Titans, and the talk is that they’ll draft a quarterback. The only speculation now is which quarterback will be the symbol of a new era.
Carson Wentz of North Dakota State has been at the top of draft boards for a little while, but Jared Goff of California has also been right there with him throughout. There is no clear-cut top quarterback in this draft, although Wentz has been favored overall more than Goff has. The advantages between the two are split. When scouts talk about the strengths of Wentz, two of the first things that are mentioned are that he is bigger than Goff in both height and weight, and that he has a stronger arm. At the same time, while Wentz may be stronger, Goff has the advantage when it comes to passing and how well he does when he is in the pocket. Draft boards all over have Wentz and Goff interchangeably as the top 2 picks. The only people right now who know for sure who they’ll be taking is the Rams, and soon the rest of the football world will know as well.
Nathan Moser is a sports beat writer for Pro Player Insiders.
