3 moves LA Rams must make following 2022 NFL Draft

Must-Do II: Sign another punter

While I’m not exactly a fan of the LA Rams punter Riley Dixon, I’m certainly not a critic either. He is a punter, a thankless role for any NFL team where anonymity means good things, and publicity is almost never a good thing. But the problem is that he has been unfairly anointed as the team’s starting punter without competition, sight unseen.

And I’m just a bit confused by that fact, considering the other fact that the 2022 NFL Draft class was literally loaded with punters. Not just in number, but in true NFL starting caliber punting talent. So what happened?

Well, there could be a lot of reasons why the LA Rams did not draft a punter. But the simplest reason is often the best. The team may not have assigned any punters in this class a value greater than that assigned to the players that they did select. After all, in terms of team utility, a punter is a very narrow use for an NFL team.  So why didn’t the Rams simply sign one of the punters remaining after the draft?

Well, immediately after the draft, the Rams scrambled to sign players in direct competition with 31 other NFL teams. But during that mad scramble to add players to fill out the roster, did anyone do the Santa routine? You know, making a list and checking it twice? We know that the Rams met with Nevada punter Julian Diaz. Per our latest information, he is still available. I don’t know how that tryout went, but I’d be happy to learn that the Rams have signed him to compete for the punter role.