Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Jimmy Kennedy Era is Over

and I for one am sooooo happy, and from what I’m hearing and reading in chat rooms, I’m not alone.

It is all rather amazing, actually. First the Rams blow it big time on Damione Lewis, and then Kennedy. These two clowns give new meaning to the term “first rounder” - first they became rounder, and now they’re not even around! Fortunately for the Rams, they are not the only ones who busted big time in that draft. That whole UPPER draft class of Kennedy’s was full of guys who tanked it even sooner than he did: WR Charles Rogers, 2nd overall pick and DT Johnathan Sullivan, 6th overall, both of whom are OUT OF THE LEAGUE, DE Michael Haynes (14th), DE Jerome McDougle (15th), DE Calvin Pace (18th), and QB Kyle Boller (19th).

There is one thing that perplexes me about this whole thing however, and that is the timing. Sure they want to give all the snaps to the young guys and expedite their development and J-Ken would only serve to get in the way of that; and sure Haslett wanted him out and they will probably look to pick up a veteran DT during camp to replace him, but please – right now? Some of the remaining DT's on the roster – Carriker, Glover, Wroten, Jackson, and Ryan leave us scratching our heads and wondering “What were they thinking?” Only Glover has more than 1 season of NFL experience and Wroten has only played in a few games. Carriker has never played DT for a whole game and the other 2 are also rookies. One would think that keeping Kennedy in the rotation this season, even at the Under Tackle position or just on the bench for his “veteran” mindset, makes more sense then relying on two players drafted in the 5th and 7th rounds.

At least Kennedy has experience and at times in the ‘04 and ‘05 seasons played “well enough” when called upon. It has been proven that some of the best and most sought after DT's taken early in the draft need a couple seasons to adjust to the NFL. Can we then expect that at this point Jackson and Ryan are going to provide better play this year than J-Ken could have? That question remains to be answered, but we can only surmise that if we were that bad with him, we can only be that bad without him, so I guess it doesn’t really hurt after all, does it?