St. Louis Rams Honors Night Recap

Saturday night the NFL gave out its yearly awards ranging from MVP, Offensive Rookie of the Year, Defensive Rookie of the Year, as well as named the finalists for the Hall of Fame class of 2015.

For the St. Louis Rams it was a pretty eventful night as Aaron Donald was a favorite to win defensive rookie of the year and Kurt Warner and Orlando Pace were in contention to make the Hall of Fame.

While the Rams didnt go a perfect three for three, Donald did win defensive rookie of the year, however, Pace and Warner missed out on making it to Canton.

Donald becomes the first Ram to win both the AP and PFWA Defensive Rookie of the Year awards since linebacker Isiah Robertson accomplished the feat in 1971. The Rams rookie had a prolific season for St. Louis, leading all NFL rookies with 9.0 sacks.  He also had 32 quarterback pressures, 12 quarterback hits, and 17 tackles for loss in his 2014 campaign.

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Warner and Pace unfortunately missed the cut for the Hall of Fame. The eight finalists included Jerome Bettis, Junior Seau, Tim Brown, Bill Polian, Charles Haley,  Will Shields, Ron Wolf, Mick Tinglehoff.

While there were eight that made the Hall of Fame, the only five that Warner and Pace could have replaced were Bettis, Brown, Haley, Seau, and Shields, and of those the only one that you can make an argument to replace is Bettis.

The fact that Pace didnt make it is an absolute snub. Pace was one of the best left tackles in NFL history and for him not to make it first try is almost a crime. There is no question he should make it next year.

Warner on the other hand may have a bit more difficult time. While many had Warner going in first try, the fact that he only had five or six really good years is going to come back to hurt him. That isn’t even to mention that Brett Favre becomes eligible next year and it is highly unlikely that two quarterbacks would go in at the same time.

Even though Warner and Pace didnt get in though, the Rams will still be represented by Bettis who won offensive rookie of the year with the Rams in 1995.