BonifayRam with some clarifications:
My return of Saffold to the left side is for several reasons. If I have a rookie playing OLT I want Saffold next to him...no brainer there. Saffold has played left side all his playing life until last season. If for some unknown reason Rams miss on Jake Matthews and have to settle for lesser OL'ers to play OLT you still want Saffold on that Blind left side period. In case of another disaster that would necessitate him having to start back @ OLT then I would prefer to have him working all OTA's, training camp & pre season on that left side then when needed he does not have to reverse his brain like he would moving from ORG to OLT .....OLG to OLT is a much smoother task!
The other reason is if Rams miss drafting a talented OG high then Barrett Jones who played & started two dozen Bama games @ ORG slides into a position he knows as well as center.
ORT-Barksdale/Jake Matthews(R)
ORG-Barrett Jones/Persons
OC- Scott Wells/Barnes
OLG- Saffold/Washington
OLT- Jake Long/Jake Matthews(R)
Lots of interesting stuff to sift though here.
Everything you say here is well thought out and reasonable, so I'm not going to disagree with any of it. What I
am going to do is put forth some equally valid alternatives (I hope) to each of your points.
Saffold:
The fact that Saffold has played on the left side for most of his career is really beside the point when you consider that he didn't actually find his true calling
until he moved to the right side and at G. So it could be looked at as him being misused in the past and he has found his new and correct home on the right side at G.
Saffold isn't needed to help a new rookie at LT named Matthews. If we draft Robinson/someone else it's a different ball of wax and I'm not sure what I'd have to say about it.
Drafting a new OG:
Who knows if we will or not and even if we do, will he be good enough to start? That is a complete unknown unless it's a stud like Matthews (or others)
Your O-line depth chart:
Barrett Jones has also spent time on the left side so it's not like we'd be throwing him into the deep end there.
Barrett Jones is a completely unknown quantity. Despite the many upheavals on the O-line last year, he wasn't able to beat out any of the below standard guards and centers we had on the roster, many of which we didn't want to re-sign. Penciling him in to start at RG is a huge leap of faith under any objective criterion.
My O-line depth chart:
Here is my depth chart that doesn't involve relying on any unknowns except the assumption that Matthews will be good from day one and being good from day one is why would draft him in the first place instead of Robinson.
ORT-Barksdale/Jake Matthews(R)
ORG-Saffold/Barrett Jones/Persons
OC- Scott Wells/Barnes/Barrett Jones
OLG- Jake Matthews(R)/Washington
OLT- Jake Long/Jake Matthews(R)