NFC West Continues To Miss On OL Prospects

The Los Angeles Rams continued to take a step down on Thursday when it was announced that they had traded former 2nd overall pick Greg Robinson, an offensive tackle, to the Detroit Lions in exchange for a 2018 6th round draft pick (per Adam Schefter of ESPN).

Giving up on a highly touted offensive lineman has become a bit of a trend in the NFC West, as this isn't the first time it has happened. The Arizona Cardinals had a similar circumstance when they traded for Chandler Jones and gave up guard Jonathan Cooper, a former 7th overall pick. They also took Levi Brown, a tackle out of Penn State, 5th overall in 2007. Brown went on to play for the Cardinals until he was traded in 2013, but he never lived up to the hype of his high draft status and is largely considered one of the worst draft picks in Arizona Cardinals history.

The Seattle Seahawks haven't been much better. They took Russell Okung in the top 10 of the 2010 draft and he is now on his 3rd team. Okung was never a bad player, but again, he really didn't live up to his hype for a variety of reasons. Then the Seahawks took James Carpenter in the first round of the 2011 draft, who is now a guard for the New York Jets.

Lastly, the San Francisco 49ers drafted Anthony Davis to be the bookend to Joe Staley on the right side, but he retired prematurely in 2015 despite being a very effective player. Since then, the 49ers have only drafted one other offensive lineman in the first round in Joshua Garnett. The jury is still out on him.

Needless to say after listing all of these examples, the NFC West has had a rough time with highly drafted offensive line prospects. Each team has had many more misses than hits in this department and with not many OL players being drafted high in the past couple of years, they won't get a chance at redemption anytime soon.