LA Rams 2021 NFL Draft: 5 Bold Predictions

As much as I would like to portray the 2021 NFL Draft as routine and predictable, it’s not. This draft will be one of the wildest rides in recent history. Perhaps one of the wildest drafts in the history of the event. And compounding the issue for the LA Rams is the fact that there is plenty of value to be found in each round.

Buckle up buttercup.

Plenty of value, but the key to bargain shopping is filling up the cart. Unfortunately, the Rams will be doing a majority of their roster filling after the draft concludes. Still, that’s not such a bad path to take. This draft is incredibly deep at a number of positions, and that will surely create the situation for highly regarded players to fall beyond the draft.

The Rams won’t be content to just run it back. The team was oh-so-close last year to winning it all. Another win or two in the regular season would have placed the Rams on a different playoff track. Still, the Rams were able to learn lessons from the 2020 NFL season, and now look to get back to the playoff hunt in the 2021 NFL season.

This will be a different type of LA Rams team, perhaps in some ways unlike any other version of head coach Sean McVay’s regular-season roster.  The Rams won 10 games in 2020. But during the season, it seemed like the Rams left as many as four victories on the football field. The team this year will be looking to seal those victories, and perhaps claim one or two wins from the jaws of defeat.

Bold challenges require bold actions. So keeping with the spirit of the challenge, here are five bold predictions for the LA Rams and the 2021 NFL Draft. Just call us ‘Nostra RamblinFanus’. And away we go!

Prediction I

Prediction I – The LA Rams will select a wide receiver on day two of this draft. Of course, the LA Rams do not need a wide receiver in rounds two or three. In all honesty, I’m not convinced that the Rams need any skill players from this draft whatsoever. But something about this draft and the LA Rams fascination with providing new toys, er… weapons for head coach Sean McVay is undeniable.

The Rams have veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson on a one-year deal this year. Even that is questionable, as Jackson has played in just eight games over the past two seasons. Head coach Sean McVay is not fooling around this year. He wants his offense to be among the top three scoring offenses in the NFL.

If the Rams pull the trigger at 57, they could be looking at 6-foot-1 185-pound North Carolina wide receiver Dyami Brown.  At 88, the team could target 5-foot-9 165-pound Louisville WR Tutu Atwell. At 103, the Rams could target 6-foot-2 210-pound Tennessee wide receiver Josh Palmer, or 5-foot-9 174-pound North Texas wide receiver Jaelon Darden.

The team will need help at backing up Jackson, but will also be looking for players to help jump-start the special teams’ play.  Those roles are optimally handled by fast and versatile receivers who can use blazing speed to advance the ball or tackle the ball carrier quickly

Prediction II

Prediction II – The LA Rams will trade back twice in the 2021 NFL Draft.  Okay, so the concept of the LA Rams trading back in this draft is not going out on a limb. But the number of trades back at two is pretty definitive. So definite that it’s just downright bold on our parts.

The Rams will want to trade back twice in this draft. Why? Trading back just once, even by trading back their lone second-round pick at 57, simply won’t cut it. The Rams need to emerge with a solid draft. Trading back for one or two more picks won’t ensure that the team can satisfy all of their roster needs.  It will take a solid haul of players, beginning with multiple picks in round three to get there.

In our trade back mock draft, the Rams traded back at 57 and at 141.  The result of two trades netted the Rams nine players from the 2021 NFL Draft. Of course, with each mock simulation, the results of the mock draft vary. But no matter how frequently I’ve run those mocks, the results of more picks are more impressive than fewer picks. That’s just the nature of this draft, and I predict that the LA Rams will take full advantage of it.

The Rams are one of those teams that seem to do notoriously well late in the draft. They have landed starters out of round six in the NFL draft who have been passed over by 31 other NFL teams many times over. That trend will act as the catalyst for the Rams to dive deeper in this draft and look for the gold nuggets prospects to fall to them there.

Prediction III

Prediction III – The LA Rams will not address the inside linebacker position in this draft. Now let’s be clear. Outside linebacker, the pass rusher position, will be addressed in this draft. But the inside linebacker position? I don’t see it.  The Rams tried and failed to draft and retain an inside linebacker in the past two NFL Drafts.

This year, the Rams will sign multiple inside linebackers after the NFL Draft. But as for the draft? I guess while I’ve love to see it happen, I don’t see the Rams spending the draft currency that is clearly in shorter supply this year than ever before on a position with such a lousy track record. Two draft picks used on the inside linebacker position with nothing to show for it. Nada. Zippity-doo-dah.

You see, the Rams welcome back ILB Travin Howard from injured reserve this year, and will treat his return as a reinforcement to the position. Added to that, the team also has the benefit of a second look at practice squad linebackers from 2020: Derrick Moncrief and Christian Rozeboom.

Of course, the team will be retrofitting those players into the new defense of Raheem Morris, but that is even more reason not to muddy the waters with more prospects to sort through. At least not any prospects drafted with picks that could be used to target more traditional positions in the draft for the Rams.

Prediction IV

Prediction IV – The LA Rams will make their most selections in round four of the 2021 NFL Draft. Right now, the Rams draft picks occur at 57 (round two), 88 (round three), 103 (round three), 141 (round four), 209 (round six), and 252 (round seven).  And yet, here I am predicting that the Rams will choose most frequently in round four?

Yes. Yes, I am.

The LA Rams are a team deeply rooted in the data analytics aspects of scouting and draft analysis. The Rams While data analytics can sort through large populations of NFL Draft prospects, it can do more than that. You see, data analytics has many uses. One of the most underestimated uses of the tool is the aid to decision-making.

The NFL Draft is similar to the floor of the NYSE. It’s constant movement, Bursting with the sounds of proposed stocks for currency and currency for stocks. In a very similar fashion, the NFL Draft is a constant streaming of calls, offers, rejections, or acceptance, and ultimately a selection of a player from the NFL Draft board. When does the team know when to pick and when to listen to offers?

In each draft, there are various tiers of players. However a team grades those tiers, and how many players populate each tier, the results are that no team wants to surrender the chance to choose from a more talented tier in the draft, for the chance to select more picks from a lesser talented tier. But if the drafting team gets an offer to choose more picks from the same stratus (tier) of players, they will do so.

In this draft, there is a drop after round four. And so, the LA Rams will likely trade back to round four, but no further.

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.