LA Rams draft picks: 2022 NFL Draft and into the future

The LA Rams have sorted out and sorted through their 90-man player roster, paring it all down to the initial 53-man roster limit for the 2021 NFL season, as well as the initial 16-man practice squad. Of course, through the course of doing so, the LA Rams were involved in several trades with NFL Draft consequences.  Since the team engaged in multiple trades involving future draft picks, it’s time for a timely revival of the upcoming NFL Drafts.

The 2022 NFL Draft is very complex because the LA Rams had traded a number of draft picks in various past transactions.  For example, the Rams put two first-round picks, but the first round in 2022 and in 2023, as part of the compensation package to pry veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions.

But draft picks are not all outbound. The LA Rams lost a number of NFL free agents to other teams via the 2021 NFL Free Agency market. Since the Rams did not sign anyone that would create offsets, the team is now eligible to be awarded the maximum of four compensatory draft picks for the upcoming 2022 NFL Draft

While all that is taking place, the Rams are still on track to receive their second of two third-round compensatory draft picks for the hiring of Brad Holmes as the Detroit Lions General Manager.  So how can we project the potential awarded compensatory draft picks?

Well, we don’t need to. Subject matter experts over at Over the Cap.com have already done so, and project the LA Rams will receive five awarded compensatory draft picks in 2022. The information may be challenging to decipher because it is presented in a tabular format that requires the reader to scan the entire list.

But for a new wrinkle, NFL.com’s NFL media and draft analyst Lance Zierlein has come out with a similar article entitled 2022 NFL Draft: Compensatory pick projections for every team. It could be an easier read because he organizes his article in terms of comp picks per team. Since the LA Rams appear to be the only NFL team projected to be awarded five compensatory draft picks in the 2022 NFL Draft, they are the first team listed.

As of the official start to the 2021 NFL season, the Rams have lost four players to free agency, and have as of yet, signed nobody new. That results in no offset calculations to ponder