Rams running back Steven Jackson has said he’d stand on the table in the team’s draft room and advocate for the selection of a wide receiver like Oklahoma State’s Justin Blackmon in the first round. But if the Rams instead take Alabama running back Trent Richardson, Jackson will be just fine with that.
“The Rams are going to do what’s best for the Rams,” Jackson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I understand that. It’s a business.”
After Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III go 1-2, the next four players off the board are expected to be (in some order) USC left tackle Matt Kalil, LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne and then Richardson and Blackmon. The Rams have the sixth overall pick in the draft, so they will probably take whichever one of those players is left on the board when it’s their time to pick.
If that’s Richardson, it will put Jackson in a position similar to the position that Marshall Faulk was put in when the Rams used their first-round draft pick in 2004 on Jackson: He’ll be the veteran who shares carries with the youngster, knowing the youngster is eventually going to replace him.
That’s not always a comfortable position for the veteran to be in, but Jackson will accept it. He understands that. It is a business.