Los Angeles Rams 2020 NFL Draft Grades

Round 2

Pick 57 – WR Van Jefferson (Florida): Which route should the Rams go if not offense with a mastermind as Sean McVay at the helm?

Jefferson wasn’t the flashiest name neither in the draft nor the NCAA, but when you watch him on tape, dude, he makes you jump out of your seat.

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Jefferson is a 6-foot-2 wide receiver, with maybe the best route running in the whole class. He can get off the line clean, his hips are as fluid as they come, he sells inside routes with hard steps and head motion. He leaves defenders stumbling more often than not.

And yes, while he didn’t run the 40-yard dash at the combine due to a Jones fracture (not serious), he is pretty fast, and he proved it at the Senior Bowl. Zebra Technology had him as the fastest player in the college exhibition game. Jefferson had a 21.05 mph top-speed, that’s fastest than fellow draftees Denzell Mims, Devin Duvernay, and Antonio Gibson, all of them with a 4.39 40-yard dash time or better (per Jim Nagy, Senior Bowl director).

With a thin but strong wide receiving corp, that features Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, and Josh Reynolds, Jefferson might be seen as a depth player, but he is not for two reasons. The first of them being the obvious gaping hole Brandin Cooks left, the second? Reynolds and Kupp are free agents after the 2020 season, while Woods’ contract runs through 2021.

With a cold mind, I’m glad to say the Rams aced it yet again.

Grade: A-