Rams dream mock draft: The perfect haul for LA in 2022

With the 213th selection of the 2022 NFL Draft

In the sixth round, the LA Rams select

And with this choice, the LA Rams add depth to their most glaring offensive weakness, their tight end play. Why a tight end, and for that matter, why Daniel Bellinger? Well, to be honest, he is a hot name in rookie prospects. His Senior Bowl performance was outstanding:

And that RAS score that seemed to be such a focus of the LA Rams 2021 NFL Draft? Well, Bellinger’s score is incredible.  And he is all the part of a tight end, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 253 pounds. That all makes him a very intriguing but complicated player. Is he a tight end, with all of the blocking responsibility that goes with it? Is he a receiving tight end, with all of the precision route trees that go with that? Or is he an H-back or Y-slot receiver, with limited usage in the offense, but able to focus on a specific niche role?

I suppose the best place to start is to review what did he do on the football field? In four college seasons, he made 68 catches for 771 yards and five touchdowns. In his draft profiles, he is not as highly regarded as the warm reception on social media.

He’s athletic, he’s big, and he’s raw. That’s what makes him so attractive to the LA Rams, who can develop his ability to run routes, and block, as he gets tougher and stronger for prolonged NFL usage. The Rams have not gotten a lot of mileage out of TE Brycen Hopkins. I think Bellinger can come in and sneak his way into the 53-man roster, perhaps at Hopkins’s expense.