LA Rams 2022 NFL Draft meetings tracker

LA Rams meeting top prospects

While the 2022 NFL Scouting combine occurred some time ago, we’ve noticed that some of the major NFL trackers had no indications of any LA Rams activity. Of course, for the most part, the Rams coaches and personnel executives did not attend the event, their third consecutive season for doing so.

Instead, scouts were in attendance, rounding out and adding clarity to any draft profiles of intriguing prospects that were, at the time, deemed incomplete. So when reports appear indicating that the LA Rams have been connected to the top-rated quarterback and the top-rated wide receiver in this draft class, it feels rather disingenuous. The LA Rams have neither a first-round nor a second-round pick. But, we will include the information and allow you to judge whether is authentic or just fillers

UPDATE! – Bulldog RB?

April 23, 2022, – The LA Rams will meet with highly regarded Georgia running back James Cook as per the latest report from FanSided NFL Insider Matt Lombardo

The LA Rams have had eyes on all of their current running backs on the roster, and if they have any questions, now is the time to act. Well, the Rams appear to be acting. Cook is an extremely versatile offensive weapon, a player who can excel in both the running game and the passing game. Standing 5-foot-11 and weighing 199-pounds, he fits that change-of-pace role that the team has been asking Darrell Henderson Jr. to fill. Coincidentally, Henderson’s contract expires at the end of this season. Hmmm.

Cook is all over the board, as some project him as high as early in Round 3, while others have noticed the reluctance of NFL teams to choose running backs early, and have him as far as Round 5.  I’ll split the difference and call him a Round 4 selection. (But I’ll list him in Round 3). I love Cook’s potential. But Cook has plenty of questions regarding his overall NFL readiness which calls his upside into question. He needs to refine his ability to pick up blitzes in pass protection. He has room to improve in getting small to squirt through smaller creases.

But we know how the LA Rams roll. If they love him, and there is plenty to love about him, he will hear his name called when the Rams finally step up to the podium.

Walter Football updates

Per Walter Football as first noticed on April 19, 2022:

The LA Rams have met with QB Malik Willis out of Liberty (Top-rated QB – Projected Round One) (Indicated as occurring at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, but unconfirmed). The meeting between NFL teams and any top prospects occurs organically at the NFL Scouting Combine, and historically has been little more than a combination of social call and curiosity, all rolled into one.

Malik Willis is a dual-threat QB who is raw but who has tremendous athletic potential and has been mocked to nearly any QB needy team who is choosing on Day 1. Because he is so universally known, I’m a bit skeptical that the LA Rams would have any need for additional information, nor do I suspect that Willis will fall out of Round One.

Willis has been projected anywhere from the top quarterback prospect to the third-best quarterback prospect in a draft class with little excitement about the quarterbacks this year. Hey, anything is possible. I just wouldn’t hold my breath on this one.

Final meeting – Wide receiver

The LA Rams have met with WR Treylon Burks out of Arkansas (Top-rated WR – Projected Round One) (Indicated as occurring at the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, but unconfirmed).

Treylon Burks is a 6-foot-3 225-pound prospect who has become a bit of a polarizing figure in terms of the 2022 NFL Draft. Some NFL draft scouts and analysts love him, considering him one of the top players in this draft class, and projecting tremendous production out of him rather quickly. Others see him as a bit of an athletic enigma, someone who tests well in track and field like competition, but whose feel and instincts for football are simply not honed to a point of placing him higher than a potential starter or backup someday.

That has equated to multiple “Boom or Bust” descriptions.

Like any highly regarded draft prospect, particularly one who plays wide receiver, he is a bit of both. He played 32 games and caught 146 passes for 2,399 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was also active in the running game, rushing 38 times for 228 yards and one touchdown. He even found his way onto special teams, returning 13 punts for 134 yards and 11 kickoffs for 226 yards.

Many analysts who are excited by him believe that Burks will become that physical big-bodied receiver in the ilk of Alshon Jeffrey. Those who are not excited by him see him more as a slower Josh Reynolds.

As for me? I do not see him falling to the LA Rams at 104. Even if he does, the Rams have greater needs there than a wide receiver who has boom or bust potential.

And there you have it. Only six reports of the LA Rams meeting with potential rookie prospects, and of that group two have plenty of reasons to suspect them as not bona fide.

So are the Rams meeting with prospects? Of course. The Rams simply do a rather excellent job of keeping their interactions with potential rookies under wraps so as not to tip off other teams as to who they are interested in.