1 thing's painfully clear in latest Rams mock draft (They're Super Bowl serious)

As soon as the 2025 NFL season for the Rams, an onslaught of succession planning will immediately be put to the test for the Los Angeles Rams. While the team will face a painstakingly high number of potential players entering the 2026 NFL Free Agency market, estimated to be as high as 31 players, the team must also come to terms with when to begin new chapters at tight end, right tackle, and most importantly, quarterback.

Of course, nothing is preventing the Rams from extending players to new contracts. But limited funds seem to run out long before the team achieves adequate roster depth. And even as the team tries to retain veterans whose contracts have expired, the front office must keep the younger players who are about to enter their final year of their rookie contracts in the peripheral vision too. They will want to be paid as well.

What all of this means is that the Rams will be forced to let some vital contributors slip through their fingers to find big paydays elsewhere in order to extend other players who are not as readily replaced. It's the same process that all 32 NFL teams face every season. It's just that the Rams roster, having improved over time with very successful drafts, seems to be filled with must-extend categories of players.

And yet, it's the same draft that has loaded the roster with incredibly talented players that must deliver once more. As is the case for any draft class, the clock starts ticking down from the moment a rookie prospect is selected. That team has four years to develop that player, play that player, and determine if that player is worth extending or left to forage for a right to compete in the NFL elsewhere. By design, a team must expect to replace approximately 25 percent of its 53-man roster every year.

That works out to over 13 new faces annually. So, how can the Rams plan to restock so many new players after this season? They get a huge jump on the matter with 10 projected draft picks for the 2026 NFL Draft. Now, the question becomes who the Rams might select in the 2026 NFL Draft. Based on the latest Rams mock draft, you are going to love this haul:

Day 1

QB Lanoris Sellers is the future franchise quarterback that you may not even realize the Rams roster needs. Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 242 pounds, this rapidly rising star is a solid South Carolina quarterback who already has everyone buzzing. He falls to the Rams because he will only have had two seasons as a starting quarterback, and that gives some NFL general managers hesitation to pull the trigger on him. He is a big-bodied dual-threat quarterback who threw for 2,534 yards and 18 touchdowns while rushing for 674 yards and seven touchdowns in 2024.

He checks all of the boxes: High IQ, cannon for an arm, makes off-platform and off-sequence throws, can innovate, passionate competitor, loyal and high-quality locker room leader. He simply oozes an ideal fit for the Rams offense. Best of all, he is currently expected to be available when the Rams pick in Round 1 without any need to use both Round 1 picks to trade up.

Sellers will arrive very talented and still a bit raw to run the Rams offense in 2026, which allows the team to give him a full season to learn from veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams opted to trade out of Round 1 in the 2025 NFL Draft to pick up an additional Round 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Selecting South Carolina quarterback Lanoris Sellers in Round 1 more than justifies taking the deal.

OT Calem Lomu gives the Rams a true franchise offensive tackle who can plug and play in his rookie season as a starter. Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing nearly 300 pounds, the Utah Utes left tackle has the choreography and movement of a tight end, the buttressing ability of a fireplug, and the unstoppable momentum of a wrecking ball.

The Rams will need new options at offensive tackle with the expiration of Rob Havenstein's contract, and Lomu brings an instant plug-and-play presence to the Rams roster at a time of great need. And it's always fashionable to tap the Utah Utes for offensive line talent. Lomu is an ideal selection for the Rams because he is ridiculously smart in terms of football IQ, he has solid pass blocking, but he loves to get downfield as a run-blocking road grader. Lomu is the perfect addition to an offensive line that is seeking ways to unlock RB Jarquez Hunter's sensational ability to attack a defense's perimeter.

Lomu may or may not be the obvious choice here for you, but by the time the 2026 NFL Draft rolls around, he will be. On the first day of the 2026 NFL Draft, the Rams have addressed their needs for successors at quarterback and offensive tackle.

This must be what Rams GM Les Snead meant when he alluded to the Rams swinging for the fences in this draft. So, how many more runs can the Rams pile on with the arrival of Day 2?