What I'm hearing and thinking about the Rams entering the NFL Draft

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It serves as a way to widen a championship window, not necessarily break through it. Then again, rarely are contenders drafting as high as No. 13 overall. For as muted as the Rams made last year’s draft by trading out of the first round, they really just delayed the bang to this year. The first half was a blockbuster trade for All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie. The second half will arrive Thursday night. And so will more players who will represent Los Angeles’ attempt to plug the holes for a championship push. Here’s what I’m thinking and hearing about the Rams heading into the draft. To maximize this top-15 pick, the Rams need to find a player who can start as a rookie without pushing a good veteran to the bench. I only see three positions where that’s realistic: linebacker, wide receiver and maybe tight end. This draft has one true linebacker the league keeps buzzing about in the first round: Ohio State’s Sonny Styles. The buzz is so strong that it seems hard to picture him making it out of the top eight picks or so. The Rams could trade up for Styles and treat him as the finishing touch on their defense — the one spot left where they could use a real impact boost. With his coverage and blitzing skills, the fit makes a ton of sense. The issue is in how to trade up. If it costs the second-round pick, that means not addressing the biggest need at wide receiver until the third. Sean McVay is looking hard at that position, as evidenced by the exploration into trading for the Philadelphia Eagles’ A.J. Brown. McVay is an 11-personnel coach at heart and wants to avoid being stuffed in a box schematically in a high-stakes game. He has a star receiver in Puka Nacua, who’s working to earn an extension after a trip to a holistic care facility, and another in Davante Adams, who will turn 34 in December. They are both in contract years, and both missed three games last season. The Rams have options here. They could trade up for Ohio State’s Carnell Tate. They could stand pat and hope one of Makai Lemon or Jordyn Tyson is available. If not, they could take Washington’s Denzel Boston. They could try to trade back and take either Texas A&M’s KC Concepcion or Indiana’s Omar Cooper Jr. Or they could attack it on Day 2 or possibly even later, given their long track record of finding stars like Nacua and Cooper Kupp that way. But the need for a potential future No. 1 receiver could change the urgency. It all comes down to their faith that Nacua will earn the monster extension he’s working toward. Because if he doesn’t, the Rams can’t trust a Matthew Stafford replacement to play without Adams or Nacua if a star isn’t ready to emerge in their place. Here’s what else I took away from the Rams’ pursuit of a Brown trade: They weren’t looking for an upgrade on Adams so much as a No. 1 receiver to lock in for years to come. That’s valuable in a post-Adams world, but its real value comes if a post-Nacua world ever has to exist. Everyone’s hope is for Nacua to lock in, mature off the field and become the cornerstone receiver on a hefty new contract. But it’s still in the hope stage, as he’s just three days back in the building. They need a pattern of behavior to undo what sent him into the care facility. That kind of growth takes time to build real trust. The decision to stick with Adams over Brown was a window into how much the push for a Super Bowl in 2026 reigns supreme above all concerns. But the opportunity cost was the future No. 1 in Brown. Can the Rams still find that? They can if they trade up for Tate. He’s widely viewed as the one durable receiver in this class who profiles as a true No. 1 option. He didn’t get much chance to truly be that at Ohio State, where he shared the field with Jeremiah Smith, but his size, testing, production, track record and play style all measure up with what a No. 1 option is. And he comes from the factory that keeps churning them out at Ohio State, home to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Terry McLaurin, Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Emeka Egbuka and Marvin Harrison Jr. Tyson has that kind of upside, but he also comes with injury risk that I think could be too much to stomach at this position in 2026. I also don’t think he’s the yards-after-catch player McVay tends to like most in a receiver. Lemon or Boston could become a No. 1 in a system perfectly tailored to make them that. Lemon has long been a tremendous fit for the Rams, but he, too, is a question to make it to No. 13. Boston could be a good fallback plan if he’s not. But both project closer to No. 2 receivers than No. 1. The No. 1 receiver role on this team in the future will be like a lifeline to the quarterback they find to replace Stafford. That’s why it’s so important — and so tricky to not know yet if Nacua will or won’t be that for them. The doomsday scenario I see for the Rams in this draft is if they sit at No. 13 and Tate, Lemon and Tyson are off the board, and so are the players teams would try to trade up for, such as Ohio State safety Caleb Downs or Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love. That was the spot I found myself in my final seven-round mock draft, when I took Georgia offensive tackle Monroe Freeling. To ensure it doesn’t happen, the Rams could trade up. After all, they’ve been pushing for trades into the top 10 in recent years, and they’ve never been as close as they are now. In our 32-team mock draft this week, I traded up with the Cleveland Browns at No. 6, sending out this year’s second-round pick and next year’s fifth-rounder. Then I took Tate. The Rams have seven picks, but it’s hard to see seven rookies making this 53-man roster unless injuries hit in training camp. The Rams would be wise to trade up somewhere to fill one of their two remaining needs of wide receiver and linebacker. The one scenario where the Rams can comfortably afford to lose their second-round pick is in knocking the wide receiver need out of the park. When the season ended, the Rams fully expected to roll back Stafford and Jimmy Garoppolo for another run. The Stafford decision was smooth. The Garoppolo one has been the opposite. He had a market in free agency, then he began contemplating retirement, and that’s where he still is as the Rams enter the draft. They came up with a Plan B to Garoppolo in Kirk Cousins, given his similar experience level and familiarity with McVay’s system. But Cousins found gold in free agency with the Las Vegas Raiders. Before the McDuffie trade, the Rams had a perfect spot to draft a quarterback to sit and learn for a year with the No. 29 pick. They could get their impact player at No. 13 and then a quarterback to stash. That’s where a player like Alabama’s Ty Simpson made sense. But now, Simpson does not appear worth the No. 13 pick, but he’s not expected to last until the second round, either. They could trade back and take him, but I still don’t think spending the top pick on a backup player is chasing the right impact — or maximizing the 2027 quarterback draft class. And yet that backup role is a must for the Rams to fill with a quarterback who is 38, managing a degenerative back issue and has had some tough injuries before. In the NFC West, the Rams need a backup who can step in for a month and deliver a 2-2 record or better. That was Garoppolo. There is a limited number of quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Stetson Bennett is one of their backup quarterbacks, too. I expect him to remain the third-stringer this season. The job is too important with this team right now. So, can the Rams gamble on Garoppolo changing his mind by not taking a quarterback this week? How much do they spend on a backup player? One option I like in the third round is LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier. Just one year ago, he was expected to be a top-10 pick before a brutal final season at LSU. But he played that through an abdominal injury and with a disastrous run game and offensive line. His 2024 play showed the size, arm strength and angles he can throw from — all tools that could be fun to develop for a year behind Stafford while trusting him enough to be the backup. A coach’s son like Nussmeier might take well to that role. Penn State’s Drew Allar is another option with a similar background. He, too, was thought of as a first-round pick a year ago. If the draft doesn’t turn out a backup quarterback and Garoppolo doesn’t return, the Rams should look to Tyrod Taylor. I don’t see them having any interest in trading for reclamation projects like Anthony Richardson or Will Levis, given their focus on high-level operations and readiness. I’m willing to make one prediction about the Rams: I think they will draft multiple offensive linemen this weekend. That is, despite not needing a single starter for this season. The Rams have four of their five starters under contract for exactly one more season. Guards Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson, center Coleman Shelton and right tackle Warren McClendon Jr. are all entering contract years, and they’ll do so while Nacua, Byron Young and Kobie Turner also play out contract years. The depth behind those linemen was already a concern at nearly every spot. The interior line is also one of this draft class’ best positions. Because the Rams don’t need a starter here, picking one at No. 13 becomes less likely. The Rams would need to see a tackle prospect as a legitimate talent upgrade over McClendon, whom they took in the fifth round in 2023. That’s possible if the top of the draft is receiver-heavy. In that scenario, I think it’s more likely the Rams trade down than take a tackle. The same is true if the top receivers are gone and the best player available is a safety, cornerback or edge rusher. Though those positions are more rotational than the offensive line, they are currently so crowded in investments that it makes it hard to justify a first-round pick. But here’s the reality: Offensive lines are expensive, and the only way to keep them in check is to draft eventual starters. It might be natural to think McClendon won’t be too expensive to retain, but consider that 24 different tackles in the NFL make at least $18 million annually, and that salary would rank fifth on the Rams’ roster right now. If McClendon has a strong year and hits the open market, he isn’t coming cheap. Meanwhile, draft picks come with suppressed set salaries for four seasons. It makes too much sense to draft and develop future starters from this year’s strong class that can be depth pieces to ensure the protection around Stafford is as strong as it needs to be. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms