The draft is approaching. Which means that teams are conducting eleventh-hour workouts with prospects.
Which means that the Rams possibly have commenced the annual process of leaking to the media the names of players they’ll be working out. The last two years, they opted to slip the information to the public via Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This year, a broader cut of reporters have been sharing details on Wednesday about the team’s final itinerary before the draft arrives.
The challenge is to ignore the names likely leaked by the team and to wonder who else will be getting a workout. Two years ago, the Rams concealed their workouts of receivers A.J. Jenkins and Brian Quick by leaking details of workouts with Justin Blackmon, Michael Floyd, and Kendall Wright. (The good news? The 49ers took Jenkins before the Rams could get him in round two. The bad news? They got Quick.)
Last year, word got out (without a leak from St. Louis) of the team’s visit to Morgantown to work out receiver Tavon Austin. But the Rams managed to keep quiet their workout of teammate Stedman Bailey, who was drafted in round three.
This year, reports are linking the Rams to the Big Three from Texas A&M (Jake Matthews, Johnny Manziel, and Mike Evans) and Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron. Also, Jason Cole reports that key decision makers are traveling via private jet for offensive lineman workouts at Notre Dame, Michigan, “OSU” (we assume Ohio State), and Tennessee.
If the team has leaked those, the real question is whether there are other names out there we don’t know about.
Then again, maybe the Rams have gone next level this year, leaking the names of the guys in which they’re actually interested.
So basically we still don’t know what the Rams or anyone else will do. Thankfully, it’s only eight days until we find out.