LA Rams NFL Draft 2021: A deep-dive dissection of all selections

Post-draft despair

And after the draft’s conclusion, we are all ESPN draft specialists like Mel Kiper and Todd McShay, armed with hot takes, eager to dole out our own personal draft grades, as measured against some arbitrary internal yardstick.

Every one of us thinks we know better, but the reality is, none of us knows nearly as much as the pair that was driving the Rams’ NFL draft-day car.

The Rams have now filled 89 out of a possible 90 roster slots. They’re holding one back, for reasons as yet unknown. Can we reverse-engineer this Rams’ roster, this Rams’ draft, this Rams’ draft psyche? Can we get inside their heads and infer what motivations underpinned their moves, their moving up or down in the draft pocket.

That’s a tall order, a tough row to hoe. We are not privy to such hush-hush information. That’s classified and for good reason. Strictly available on a need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know. They (the Rams front office executives) are the experts. This is what they get paid to do. The personnel executives are the ones who know where and how they need to improve this team. You, me, we, however, may only infer where and how we need to improve this team.

They got the drop on us. They hold the cards and they won’t show them at all. When the blackjack player busts, he always loses, even if the dealer’s hand also busts.

And so, as Rams fans, we are left to deduce whatever we can, as a CIA analyst must read between the lines of a press release with a Moscow dateline. Sometimes, it’s not so much about what they write or say, but rather, about what they don’t write or say. We are reduced to being like Kremlinologists.