LA Rams 2021 NFL Draft: 5 Bold Predictions

Prediction V

Prediction V – The LA Rams will name at least one player nobody has heard of by the end of round five. Well, perhaps I’m using a bit of hyperbole here. But by the midpoint of Day Three of the 2021 NFL Draft, I predict that the Rams will name a player that will cause almost all of us to scramble for information to answer one of the most basic questions: Who the heck is that?

Now, the very nature of this prediction is such that I won’t know who the Rams pick. But the imperfect data available in the 2021 NFL Draft certainly sets the stage for the possibility.  If not for an eye-opening performance at the Senior Bowl, Wisconsin-Whitewater’s interior offensive lineman Quinn Meinerz would still be projected as a priority free agent signing after the draft.  While he has since climbed onto the radar of a number of teams, how many quality young men are out there just like him?

The ranking of prospects in the days leading up to the draft has less true meaning than you might think.  Some players truly have talent, but they may not meet the needs of NFL teams and will fall until they are at a point in the draft where a team needs their positional talent. Some players who are coveted, receive bad press as teams with earnest interest try to dampen their market. In that case, the public perception is lower than the actual value of the player.

But finally, and particularly noteworthy for the 2021 NFL Draft, information is sporadic. Some players have played since 2019. Other players played a part-year in 2020. Some players played in 2020, but with little time to prepare for the season. How do NFL teams objectively compare the fruit salad prospects in this draft? The answer is that some won’t, or that they will have a draft board that does not resemble that of the NFL analysts boards that we’ve seen on display for the past four months.