Montez Sweat could be worth Rams trading up for after impressive NFL Combine
By Dan Parzych
If the Los Angeles Rams are interested in Montez Sweat, the NFC champions may need to trade up for the star defender following an impressive performance at the NFL Combine.
From now until the middle of April, the Los Angeles Rams will evaluate some of the best talent available in the upcoming NFL Draft, as the NFC champions realize they will be facing more pressure than ever to live up to the hype once again during the 2019 season.
Along with every other team, the Rams are currently participating at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis to get a closer look at some of these players who may be able to help live up to expectations once again, one of which happened to be Montez Sweat.
In what shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who followed him Mississippi State, Sweat entered the combine as one of the top edge rushers from this year’s draft class, and was expected to put on quite a show in Indianapolis, assuming all went according to plan.
Turns out, Sweat would go on to make history at the big event by finishing with a 4.41 time in the 40-yard dash, setting a record for defensive lineman at the combine.
With his size and strength, just thinking about Sweat run with this kind of speed shows what kind of potential he has at the NFL level. And while the chances of Sweat falling late enough in the first round to be available at No. 31 seems slim, at least the Rams met with the defensive end to show the interest was there.
Right away, just the thought of Sweat joining a defense run by Wade Phillips will put a huge smile on the face of any Rams fan since the defensive coordinator is one of the best in the business for a reason.
Of course, the one interesting factor that will most likely come into play is Sweat being off the table by the time Los Angeles is on the clock in the first round of the draft, meaning the best chance of landing the defensive star would be through trading up.
Sweat’s performance from the combine alone has caught the attention of any team that wasn’t already expressing interest before, and the Rams would love nothing more than to add another effective edge rusher if given the opportunity.
So would Los Angeles actually pull the trigger down the road, and trade up to land Sweat if he ended up being the player they preferred to go with in the first round? Well, if the previous two years are any indication of whether the Rams would consider the possibility of trading up to land Sweat, there’s no question they would.