Posted by Will Brinson It's a question that has to be reasonably asked, particularly after news broke on Friday evening that Donnie Avery -- the closest thing St. Louis had to a No. 1 wideout -- will miss the entire 2010 season .
It's at least worth considering for a number of reasons. First of all, Jackson, for all his off-field issues, grew into a premiere wideout with Philip Rivers and could potentially do the same with Sam Bradford, if the Rams could justify spending upwards of $10 million a year on him.
The justification there is that you don't want to be forced into lobbing a $50 million investment onto the field with no one to throw to; and honestly, Bradford/Steven Jackson/V-Jax at least has the beginnings of a pretty formidable offensive core, especially if Roger Saffold and Jason Smith can develop.
Secondly, the Rams would at least seem like a team that the Chargers might be interested in talking trade with -- it's likely that their second-rounder (the reported pick needed to swap for Jackson) would be high-value enough to warrant making the swap, and it's hard to make a case for why San Diego wouldn't be willing to speak with St. Louis, who resides in the same division as Seattle, a team that DID get the opportunity to talk with Jackson's agent Neil Schwartz about a deal.
Jeff Gordon of STL Today makes a solid point too : new Rams' owner Stan Kroenke might be willing to pony up some cash on his new franchise. After all, if you have the equivalent of a really expensive Hyundai in his garage right now -- if you're gonna drop that kind of coin on a semi-decent-but-potentially-lame car, why not going ahead and throw some rims on that puppy?
Jackson, of course, will miss at least three games during the regular season, and that's kind of a nightmare. But no one's expecting the Rams to win the Super Bowl, much less contend in the NFC West, so in the long-term, those three games aren't dealbreakers, especially if you can leverage Jackson's issues into a contract with plenty of incentives.
With Jackson seeming quite willing to sit out the entire season in San Diego and lose a year towards free agency, there's no reason to think he'd be upset about having to take roughly 10 paces backwards in terms of pursuing a championship, particularly if it meant he got paid.
And yes, you can expect to read a "[NFL Team] should go after Vincent Jackson" piece every time someone loses their top wideout for the majority/all of the season. With Jackson's status, that's just how things are going to roll.
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