LA Rams Draft Big Board: Top 23 Edge rushers in 2022 draft class

Okay, the LA Rams have lost three outside linebackers so far this year, and have yet to replace them. While this is not the Code of Hammurabi, the Rams’ front office would be rather wise to make an effort to restore the team’s outside linebacker depth to the pre-free agency levels, particularly with the team trying to stock their 90 man roster.

The team has lost the play of OLB Justin Lawler, a player who had come through for them in a pinch when the roster needed to compensate for injuries to several rotational players. The team has also lost the play of OLB Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, a young edge rusher who had given the defensive quality snaps. And the team has lost All-Pro OLB Von Miller, who was rented for half of the 2021 NFL season and who helped to propel the team to win Super Bowl LVI.

Now, in the aftermath, the team must restock the shelves.  The trick for 2022 is… the LA Rams have plenty of positional needs, but only eight later-round picks. That means that the team must be willing to adapt quickly to a rapidly changing draft board, must be capable of pivoting from one targeted prospect very quickly, and finally, the LA Rams must be on top of their game, as this draft will no doubt be a rather wild ride.

Rams Draft is vital to the 2022 season

Right now, the LA Rams have an estimated 66 players under contract for the 2022 NFL Season. Since the team is looking at a roster limit of 90 (+1 for IPP), the LA Rams’ eight draft picks will still place the roster some 17 players short of the season limit for training camp.

That means that the Rams will be shopping for a number of edge rushers. So who can tell which of the 2022 Draft class prospects will be selected? Well, rather than try to identify the needle in the draft class haystack, here are the 20 most likely edge rushers to fall into the Rams’ reach of picks 104 through 262. Since the Rams will likely augment their draft by signing a number of undrafted rookie free agents after the draft.  We’ll name and discuss a few of those too at the end of this article.

The problem with any draft board is how I rank the prospects. For that, I will rely on the prospect rankings as established at NFL.com on their 2022 NFL Draft tracker. That will most certainly create debates over where a prospect will land, but we’ve done our best to be objective about it.

We’ve bypassed the green room guys too. This Big Board will focus on those prospects who may be on the board when the LA Rams are choosing. All set? Here we go