5 2021 NFL Draft rookies to pair LA Rams Donald to devastate the NFL

UCLA

The LA Rams have a reputation of looking far and wide for the most talented players to choose from in the draft. But for the 2021 NFL Draft, they need to look no further than their own back yard, and specifically at UCLA’s defensive lineman Osa Odighizuwa

When Osa Odighizuwa played in the Reese’s Senior Bowl, he was hoping to put on a good display of his football skillsets. He somewhat overshot the mark, emerging as the most effective defensive lineman of the contest. And that’s not all. He is getting a lot of attention nationally for  his performance at the Senior Bowl

Like Aaron Donald, Osa Odighizuwa is an interior defensive lineman who has a solid and unstoppable pass rush. Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 280-pounds, he won’t dominate 60 minutes at the line of scrimmage. But he has extreme versatility at all defensive line positions, has a bead on the quarterback at all times, and is a disruptor at the line of scrimmage.

He showed steady and unrelenting progress each year at UCLA and has been on the radar of NFL teams for two years. His Senior Bowl performance iced the cake that has been baking for some time.  Osa Odighizuwa does not have a day one projection, but the lack of depth at the defensive line and his heroics at the Senior Bowl could allow him to leap frog other prospects in the 2021 NFL Draft. Per some mock drafts, there are as few as eight defensive linemen taken in the first four rounds.

My experience with the draft is the opposite. If NFL teams view a position as shallow or light, they tend to grab an NFL capable player at that position early, and then double back to select players from other deeper positions. That’s why I don’t think any of the prospects listed here make it past round four of the 2021 NFL Draft. But with any luck, one of these five players will hear their name called by the LA Rams in the 2021 NFL Draft.