St. Louis Rams Biggest Need: Experience

Dec 29, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks outside linebacker Malcolm Smith (53) tackles St. Louis Rams running back Zac Stacy (30) during the first quarter at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

In today’s NFL  team’s are always trying to get younger and build for the future by using the draft. If it’s one team that has used that tactic the most the past couple of years, it’s the St. Louis Rams.

The Rams made one of the biggest trades in NFL draft history trading away the number two overall pick to the Washington Redskins in 2012 for a plethora of picks, picks that have built this team.

In the past two years under head coach Jeff Fisher and general manager Les Snead the Rams have held 17 picks in the draft. This year the Rams once again have the number two overall pick and are looking to once again make a big trade to acquire more picks.

Using this tactic of trading back and acquiring more picks is great, the Rams are the youngest team in the NFL and have a bright future ahead of them.

The only question is, are the Rams building too young? The oldest players on the Rams roster are 33 years old, those player being center Scott Wells and linebacker Will Witherspoon, both of which more than likely won’t even be on the roster next season.

The Rams corps players are within their first five years in the league. The Rams are missing a few players who have been there and done that. They are missing a guy who can teach these young players what to do in certain situations.

If it’s one thing the Rams missed the most in running back Steven Jackson this season, it was his experience. For the most part the Rams replaced his production, but what they could not replace was his knowledge of the game and veteran leadership.

One issue with the Rams last season was consistency, mental errors, and the ability to close games. Experience fixes all of those things. The good thing for the Rams is that these young players now have another year under their belt and will hopefully learn from their mistakes.

"I think we’re close,” Sam Bradford said. “Like I said earlier, I think it’s a matter of us being more consistent and playing to our fullest potential each week, and not having those drops where we don’t perform that way some weeks. But you look at some of our wins this year, some of the teams that we beat. Beat New Orleans who was a playoff team. Beat Indy who was a playoff team.“So it’s not far off. I think everyone saw that we have the talent to compete and to play with anyone. It’s just a matter of us just finishing a few more games. I don’t know how we do that, but we’ll look at that in the offseason and figure out what we need to do. I think we’re right there.”"

Bradford is 100% correct in what he says, the Rams are right there and they are getting close. When Sam Bradford went down, many fans were expecting this team to have two picks in the top five or at least the top ten, but no, this team went out and fought in every game, and consequently, matched their win total from 2012.

In no way is being young a bad thing, the 1999 Rams and 2010 Green Bay Packers were the youngest teams in the NFL at the time when they both won the Super Bowl. However, both of those teams had key veteran guys on offense and defense. The Rams just need to add a veteran guy or two to the roster to teach these young guys the little things about the game of football.

Winning in the NFC West won’t be easy, but the Rams are no longer going to wave the white flag and just give up, the Rams have the ability and the pieces to compete in their division as they have proved  at times over the past two seasons. Adding experience and bringing consistency to this team would go a long way.