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John Raoux/Associated Press

Cam Akers, RB, Florida State

Strengths: Quickness, receiving skills, balance, power-to-size ratio

Weaknesses: Blocking, size

The Rams crashed from being darling-geniuses of the NFL to just another cap-strapped mediocrity so quickly that the force of their impact could have leveled a small forest.

Two years ago, they were the whiz kids with all the answers. Now, they're reeling from the losses of Brandin Cooks, Todd Gurley and many lesser-known role players, scraping the ceiling of the salary cap to keep a crumbling offensive line intact and trying to upgrade through the draft after trading away multiple first-round picks on players like Jalen Ramsey who are destined to cause even more future cap problems. The Rams are a cautionary tale of what happens when you bet everything on squeezing through a tiny Super Bowl window. (The Bears, meanwhile, are what happen when you aspire to be the Rams and whiff).

So the Rams spent their first pick of the night replacing Gurley, who will still cost them a chunk of dead-cap space. At least they picked a pretty good running back in Akers, who once stayed in an eighth-grade football game despite being so dehydrafted that he was throwing up while he was running.

"Everybody wanted to take me to the hospital, but I felt the need to finish the game," he said. "I knew I could. I knew my body. I finished the game."

Bleacher Report does not condone leaving puking eighth-graders in football games, even if they really want to. In fact, we actively condemn it. Seriously, they're eighth-graders: toss their cellphone in the back of the ambulance and they will chase it. And if you think eighth-graders "know their bodies," watch Big Mouth.

Anyway, all's well that ends well.

"I did good," Akers added. "After that happened, I came back and ran another 80-yard touchdown two plays later. ... I came out, took some Powerade, water, had some mustard and I went back in three plays later and ran for a touchdown again."

Apparently, mustard (like pickle juice) may help combat dehydration. So they gave it to the puking kid. And he ran for a touchdown, because he was the best player on the field, and also, no one wants to tackle the puking kid.

Let's just stop telling Akers' old tale and provide a link to the Mayo Clinic's recommendations on dehydration in youth sports instead.

Akers' tape is both fun and frustrating to watch. He's smooth, quick and capable of both juking and stiff-arming tacklers. But the Florida State offensive line looked like the college equivalent of the 2016 Seahawks offensive line, so Akers needed lots of moves and muscle just to reach the line of scrimmage. Many of his receptions were quick flares or middle screens with the defense ready to pounce on him.

Akers' blocking looks comically bad at times and excellent at others. That could be a byproduct of often having three defenders collapsing the pocket at once, leaving him to solve a multiple-choice problem while trying to protect the quarterback.

Akers' compact frame, quickness and occasional blocking misadventures recall Kenyan Drake. He'll be a major factor in the Rams' running back committee. Gosh, if only they thought of selecting players like Akers before they drafted Gurley.

Grade: C+