Where Does OT Isaiah Battle Fit into St. Louis Rams’ Plans?
The St. Louis Rams bucked the recent trend in the NFL on Thursday afternoon, selecting Clemson offensive tackle Isaiah Battle in the fifth round of the league’s annual supplemental draft. Battle was the first player taken in the supplemental draft since the Cleveland Browns took wide receiver Josh Gordon as a second-rounder in 2012. Battle is an impressive physical specimen, measuring in at 6-foot-7 and 290 pounds. That means he has the build to profile as a left tackle in the NFL, though that won’t come before some serious coaching and personal development.
A quick screening of Clemson’s appearance in the Russell Athletic Bowl this past season against Oklahoma reveals that Battle is an athletically skilled player, but still has quite a ways to go in terms of developing his technique before he’s ready to play in the NFL, particularly if he’s going to play in a ground-and-pound run-based offense like the one the Rams plan to utilize. He doesn’t bend his knees enough and often bends his waist too much as a run blocker, which results in unnecessary stalemates with defensive linemen.
Battle’s iffy technique would have been enough to remove him from first-round consideration if he originally would have chosen to enter the standard NFL Draft after his junior season, especially in as deep of a lineman class as existed in 2015. If that weren’t enough to hurt his stock, however, there are some character issues to be concerned about with Battle.
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While the official reason that Battle stated for his choice to enter the supplemental draft was that he wanted to support his soon-to-be-born child, other sources say that he had exhausted the patience of the Clemson coaching staff with his off-the-field behavior. Battle was cited for speeding and marijuana possession in June, which was his “third strike” while at Clemson, following previous suspensions for an unidentified violation of team rules and a one-game ban for punching a South Carolina player in 2013.
Notable recent supplemental draftees include Gordon, who missed most of 2014 due to a drug suspension and will miss the entire 2015 season thanks to another substance abuse bust, Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent, who was later charged with intoxication manslaughter after killing teammate Jerry Brown in a drunk-driving accident, and Terrelle Pryor, whose apparent uncoachability led to him washing out as an NFL quarterback after just three seasons before deciding to convert to wide receiver this offseason.
That’s not to say that Battle will continue to be a malcontent and let personal issues get the best of him in the NFL, but the odds aren’t exactly in his favor. Luckily, the Rams do seem to do a good job of keeping players in line off the field; the team has 12 different players who have been arrested during the course of their collegiate or pro careers, yet most of these incidents came before the players joined the Rams, and the team has had less legal incidents than most NFL clubs.
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With that said, it will take more than just babysitting and coddling to turn Battle into a successful NFL player. If Battle committed a “third strike” violation, that means he’s not apt to learn from his mistakes and make changes; that is, he’ll keep doing the wrong things over and over again. That quality could definitely carry over to the field, which isn’t a positive for a player like Battle who is far from technically sound as he enters the NFL.
Perhaps that’s the reason why we see less offensive linemen with terrible character issues than players at any other position. More than any other players, linemen need to be able to accept coaching and master a multitude of techniques in order to thrive in the NFL. They can almost never get away with cutting corners or doing things “almost the right way”. Whereas players like Gordon or Rams cornerback Janoris Jenkins have been able to succeed on the field as pros, it’s much more rare to see a lineman thrive with this type of off-field attitude. Guys like Gordon and Jenkins can “get away” with playing with a lack of instinct, to an extent, because there’s so much more emphasis placed on raw skill at wide receiver or cornerback. On the offensive line, however, there isn’t an excuse for slip-ups, and while a guy like Jenkins can mask his lapses in coverage by running back interceptions for touchdowns, Battle won’t have the opportunity to make a big play and make the fans forget if he blows an assignment.
All of this brings to question whether the Rams were right to sacrifice their 2016 fifth-rounder to select Battle. They already took four offensive linemen in the regular draft, including three who have a fair amount of expectations attached to them in second-round tackle Rob Havenstein, third-round guard Jamon Brown, and fourth-round swingman Andrew Donnal. Sixth-round guard Cody Wichmann will also be in the mix going into training camp. Unless the Rams carry more than 10 linemen (which they did do under Fisher for a period in 2013), it’s difficult to envision a scenario where all five drafted linemen would be able to crack the 53-man roster. That’s semi-acceptable in Wichmann’s case, but it becomes more embarrassing if they end up cutting a fourth or fifth-rounder out of training camp.
General manager Les Snead was upfront on Thursday in saying that the Rams have absolutely no plans to use Battle in games during 2015, with this season serving as his “redshirt year” and 2016 scheduled to be his true “rookie season”. With that in mind, Battle is almost like a Rule 5 Draft pick in Major League Baseball; he’ll be a useless player on the 53-man roster, but he’ll probably have to occupy a spot in order for the Rams to retain his rights. There’s been talk about him possibly spending 2015 on the practice squad, but the Rams obviously felt that there was enough interest in him from other teams in the league to necessitate spending a fifth-round pick on him, rather than a sixth or seventh-rounder, so it might be difficult to get him through waivers.
In addition, it doesn’t say a whole lot about 2014 second overall pick Greg Robinson that the Rams already feel the need to take a developmental tackle prospect one year later. Sure, it’s nice to have depth behind Robinson, but the Rams already have a good start on that depth with Donnal, and if Robinson is supposed to be an anchor on the blind side for the next 10 to 12 years, is it really necessary to invest in a high-ceiling/low-floor player like Battle with so much depth already on the roster? Considering the rather minimal impact that recent Rams fifth-rounders like Brandon McGee and Rokevious Watkins have had, one could say that it’s “just a fifth-rounder”, but the Rams face the possibility of losing multiple 2016 picks, depending on the results of conditions laid out in the trades for quarterbacks Nick Foles and Case Keenum, so it’s not like they have a multitude of selections to throw around.
With that said, the Rams have put very little value on late-round picks during the Les Snead/Jeff Fisher administration, anyway, as none of their final five picks in the 2014 draft made the 53-man roster last season, and only three of nine previous sixth and seventh-rounders under Snead and Fisher have ever played in a game for the Rams. (In addition, 2015 sixth-rounder Bud Sasser has already been released due to a worrisome heart condition.) One could argue that because the Rams haven’t had a winning season since 2003, they should be converting more frequently on these picks, but that’s beside the point.
Overall, it’s difficult to fault the Rams for taking a chance on a high-upside player like Battle. But considering the risk involved, as well as the fact that the Rams have already invested draft picks in Robinson, center Demetrius Rhaney, Havenstein, Brown, Donnal, and Wichmann over the past two years, it begs the question of if Battle’s selection was really an efficient allocation of resources.