St Louis Rams: Monday's Rams News and Notes at Noon

Welcome to Monday's St. Louis Rams "News and Notes at Noon", where NFL pre-draft smokescreens are getting out of hand and where NFL draft and mock draft talk is kicking into nitric oxide mode. 

Analyzing Options for St. Louis at Cornerback 

Nick Wagoner of stlousrams.com shared some outstanding information and insight in regard to the corner position and prospects available in the 2012 NFL Draft in this piece.  

Wagoner details what is on tap for the draft, his top five CB prospects and names a sleeper pick. 

His No. 5 pick is a bit of a surprise: Trumaine Johnson of Montana.

Brian Billick's Top 100 Draft Prospects

Former Baltimore Ravens head coach Brian Billick offers his big board of his top 100 draft prospects in this article for foxsports.com.  

Not surprisingly, Billick has Andrew Luck (one) and Robert Griffin III (two) at the top of his list.  

Some interesting slotting includes guard David DeCastro at six, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox at seven, wide receiver Justin Blackmon at eight, guard/tackle Cordy Glenn at 17, offensive tackle Mike Adams at 22, cornerback Josh Robinson at 31 and wideout Kendall Wright at No. 32. 

If Wright were to fall to the second round, St. Louis would probably be ecstatic to add the electric Baylor wideout there. 

Looking at Tight End Coby Fleener

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch takes an in-depth look at former Stanford tight end Coby Fleener in this submission for stltoday.com.  

Thomas pointed out how the Rams struggled in regard to limited production from the tight end position and analyzed the attributes and speed that make Fleener such an attractive prospect for a plethora of teams. 

At 6'6' and 250 pounds with 4.45 to 4.5 40 yard speed, it is no wonder that Fleener is being pegged as a first round selection by cbssports.com in their TE rankings found here. 

Wide Receiver Position is Deep

Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch asserts that this year's draft class is deep at the receiver position.  

Thomas analyzes the wideout position and speculates as to who might be some good potential options for St. Louis in next week's draft in this column. 

In the above-linked piece Thomas quotes long-time NFL evaluator Gil Brandt of nfl.com, who shares this regarding the WR position this year: 

"

There's a boatload of receivers in this group of guys coming out. There's a plethora of them. Chris Givens (Wake Forest) is probably the best route runner of any of these guys coming out.

"

Look for St. Louis to add one (if not two) wide receivers via the draft.  If the Rams add Jerome Simpson, it would increase the odds that only one WR would be added in the draft.  St. Louis is reportedly still interested in Simpson, according to this, from nfl.com. 

Five Players Who the Rams Should Consider Drafting 

Rob Rang of nfldraftscout.com suggests five players that Rams general manager Les Snead should consider drafting this year via this column at cbssports.com. 

One of those players is Alameda Ta'amu of Washington, a mammoth defensive tackle from Washington who would seem to be a great fit inside to complement DT Kendall Langford.

Report Says Rams Might Trade or Release Steven Jackson if They Draft Trent Richardson

Peter King of Sports Illustrated presumes that St. Louis would trade or cut incumbent running back Steven Jackson, a three time Pro Bowl player, if the Rams draft Alabama running back Trent Richardson, as stated in this column.

All due respect to King, but I do not personally believe that a selection of Richardson equals an ouster of Jackson.  

Head coach Jeff Fisher loves running backs and has said he likes having as many as possible.  He also spoke highly of the aforementioned Jackson in the above-linked piece. 

Ranking the Rams Positional Needs Prior to the 2012 NFL Draft 

Finally, I ranked the Rams positional needs for one final time as we rapidly approach next week's 2012 NFL Draft in this contribution for Bleacher Report. 

I also offered several options at each position of need while looking at the current stage of each position. 

Have a great day STL Rams Nation and thank you, as always, for keeping up on the latest news of interest regarding the St. Louis Rams. 

Follow @ShaneGmoSTLRams

Shane Gray covers the St. Louis Rams daily as a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. You are encouraged to check out the rest of his work here. Gray also owns and operates stlramscentral.com.