NFL Draft 2021: Grading LA Rams 3 draft-day trades

Trade 3

The LA Rams traded for the third and final time in the 2021 NFL Draft with another familiar trade partner, this time with the Houston Texans. The Texans you may recall traded their 2020 second-round pick to the LA Rams for WR Brandin Cooks and the LA Rams 2022 fourth-round pick, a pick that will convey to the Texans next year. Of course, Cooks put up solid numbers for the Texans this year, which is likely one of the contributing factors for the Rams to re-evaluate the quarterback play.

In this exchange, the Rams traded the round-four 170th pick of the draft (value of 21.8) for the Texans round-four 174th pick of the draft (value of 20.2) and the round-seven 233rd pick of the draft (value 1.0).  Of all of the Rams trades, this exchange was nearly equal, in that the Rams received 21.2 value for 21.8 value per the Drafttek trade value chart.

So who did the Texans end up selecting? Well, they added a 6-foot-2 220-pound inside linebacker Garret Wallow (5.80 grade from NFL.com)from nearby Texas Christian University (TCU). While a bit raw, he has a good foundation and mindset to expect further development. He, like many players chosen by the Rams, is expected to compete immediately for a special teams’ role with the Texans.

The LA Rams drafted a 6-foot-5 270-pound defensive end named Earnest Brown IV out of Northwestern. Brown (5.80 grade from NFL.com) has NFL pro size and muscle mass. He is a curious fit on the Rams defense who had lost a very productive Morgan Fox.  With the 233rd pick, the Rams draft another running back, a 5-foot-10 205-pound rusher named Jake Funk from the University of Maryland.

I did not like this pick on draft day. But I’m warming up to it rapidly. Jake Funk (5.69-grade per NFL.com) is not just a run-the-football-through-the-hole sort of player.  While he is another running back to compete for rushes, he is also a very dangerous coverage player on special teams. He is even a very accomplished receiver out of the backfield.

In each of the trades, the Rams seemed to be willing to surrender the value of the picks themselves in order to have more selections from the draft. Then? The Rams showed that they have a fine eye for selecting rookies. While many of you may not be there yet, it seems that the Rams had a solid draft plan in place all along.

Rams Grade: B+