If the St. Louis Rams select Alabama RB Trent Richardson with the sixth overall pick of the 2012 NFL Draft, Sports Illustrated’s Peter King believes the Rams would either trade or release their incumbent star RB, Steven Jackson. Jackson is due $7 million in 2012, and King doesn’t see them paying him that sum of money to share the job with Richardson, who many believe has the talent to be a starting RB from the get-go in the NFL. On the contrary, King also believes that if Richardson and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon are both still on the board when St. Louis are on the clock, they will lean towards Blackmon. Nothing is set in stone after the first two, possibly three, picks in the Draft. Cleveland, who are at No. 4, could definitely do with a back like Richardson, and Greg Schiano, head coach of Tampa Bay who are at No. 5, has made his admiration for Richardson public. Source: NFL Trade Rumors
well, i suppose something like this is more possible than ever with the new rookie wage scale. not many RB's make $7 mill/year anymore but i would think jackson is still a top 10 RB and is worth it. he hasn't looked as good the last couple of years, but it's hard to look good when everyone around you is so bad. his o-line has sucked for a while now.
DO THIS TRADE STEELERS. that would put the ??? at RB at ease for at least a year or two and we could probably get him for a 5th
How would that affect this year's cap, though, does it count? That's a pretty big RB salary to take on for a team with cap issues already..
He's been playing hurt, what do you expect??? Before everyone started spamming the crap out of the Pass Heavy Spread Offence, it was the dual-back systems. Even if the Rams were to take Richardson (Which I strongly doubt will happen), they would most likely split carries like Jackson did with Faulk in his first two seasons, than to gain a low value pick.
Getting an elite talent at WR would go much farther towards improving the O as well as giving Bradford the best chance of success. Although as a divison rivals fan Id much rather you draft Richardson.
if he's been hurt for 2 years straight then they have an even bigger problem because how do you pay a running back $7 mill/yr if he can't stay healthy? either way you look at it, they need production for $7 mill/year and with the rookie wage scale, they could draft t.rich and pay him a fraction of what they're paying s.jax and pretty easily get just as much production from that position.
