The Los Angeles Rams haven’t had a first-round pick in either of the last two drafts because of trades for Jared Goff and Brandin Cooks. As of now, they hold the 31st overall selection in Round 1, but it’s far from a certainty that they’ll be the team making that pick on April 25.
Les Snead has a knack for trading picks and with the Rams’ selection being at the end of the first round, moving back a few picks to the second is definitely an option – especially if one of Los Angeles’ primary targets doesn’t fall to No. 31.
Snead recently discussed how the Rams plan to approach the draft this year and indicated that trading back is definitely an option, as it always is. They’ll also try to take the best player available “at a specific amount of positions.”
“I think the way we’ll do it is, we’ll have a priority of position we should target. Now, where we’re picking at 31 … it’s a lot harder to gauge who is going to be there,” Snead said, via the team’s official site. “Nowadays, it’s like, OK, you can probably guess the top 10 to 15 [draft picks], but after that, the order gets a little funky and harder to figure out. So I think what we’ve got to do is be disciplined and go, let’s call it, within a specific amount of positions if at that pick, or let’s say we want to trade back into the second round or something and acquire more picks — you then take who you subjectively think is the best player available at those positions. Because if you go into it with one position, that’s usually where you reach. Or maybe you get lucky and the position you really need is sitting there, but you always want to guard against, if you call it, the cognitive bias that comes into play.”
Right now, it’s difficult to predict exactly what positions the Rams will be targeting in the draft. Until free agency happens and players are signed, we won’t fully know where the Rams’ biggest holes will be.
Currently, they’re almost certain to address the pass rush with Dante Fowler Jr. hitting free agency, as well as the interior defensive line. Michael Brockers could be cut to free up $10.25 million, while Ndamukong Suh is also a free agent like Fowler.
Safety could also be a position of need, along with left guard. Lamarcus Joyner and Rodger Saffold are pending free agents and could price themselves out of L.A.
There’s still a long way to go before the Rams completely narrow down their positions of need, but they likely have a decent idea of which spots they’ll be looking at come draft time.
