Need is a terrible evaluator.
NFL teams drafting to fill obvious needs are prone to mistakes.
For example, if the Vikings in 1998 had drafted for need, they would not have taken Randy Moss. Three defensive backs went in the four picks following the Vikings selection of Moss with the 21st pick in the first round. The Vikings could have used help in the defensive backfield, but who would you rather have on your team: Moss, or Tebucky Jones?
To offer a negative example of drafting for need, when the Vikings traded Moss to the Oakland Raiders for the seventh pick in the draft, they used the seventh pick on a receiver to replace Moss. They drafted Troy Williamson No. 7. He was fast. He did not replace Moss.
Les Snead has gained an understanding of risk during his tenure as Rams general manager.
Snead was the one who spent the first overall pick on Jared Goff and signed Todd Gurley to a lucrative extension. There were also trades of first-round picks for Jalen Ramsey and Brandin Cooks. And earlier this offseason, Snead made his latest big move when he traded Goff and a collection of picks for Matthew Stafford.
Risk is necessary to improve in any field, and Snead isn t afraid to take a chance when he deems it necessary to keep the Rams competitive in the ever-changing NFL. Though all of his risks haven t panned out, Snead s most recent leap of faith wasn t an independent decision it came from the results of his original bet on Goff. And it just might have the Rams in their best position yet.
If Alex Smith, the quarterback of the Washington Football Team, needed any reassurance that his right leg would hold up after two years and 17 surgeries out of the game, he got it fairly quickly. Some 700 days after a sack by J.J. Watt left him with a compound spiral fracture in his right leg, and one of the most gruesome injuries in NFL history, he returned to playâand was promptly sacked by Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.
Though the leg had been repaired successfullyâwith 28 screws and three platesâthe journey had been long, complex, and pretty terrifying. At one point, his leg was infected with flesh-eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis. Smith then developed sepsis, a complication of an infection that occurs when a bodyâs immune response damages its own tissues, which left him with two options: amputate his leg, or have a series of surgeries to try to save it. Neither option was good, and neither left Smith, a former number one overall pick,
He pointed to the Washington Football Team as the prime example.
Washington bowed out of the postseason, but the Packers have to face perhaps the best remaining defensive front in the NFC in the Los Angeles Rams. You need a powerful run game and an elite D-line to beat Aaron, the scout said at the time.
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Enter two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.
Here s a look at the reasons the sixth-seeded Rams (who went 10-6 and beat the Seahawks in the wild-card round) are a good matchup and a bad matchup for the top-seeded Packers (13-3) in Saturday s NFC divisional playoff game (4:35 p.m. ET, FOX) at Lambeau Field.