CBS Sports just told the NFL what Rams fans have known all along

The Los Angeles Rams took significant risks in the 2023 NFL Draft. Fortunately, general manager Les Snead hit on nearly every rookie selected that year. That's more than impressive, as the team rallied back to relevance, powered by a small army of passionate players. Many drafted rookies were thought to be reaches. And yet, history proved otherwise.

Now, CBS Sports has upgraded its draft grade for that draft, giving Los Angeles a nearly perfect A+ grade in the rear view mirror. That's quite an uptick after an instant draft grade of B. Curiously, the majority of the most positive instant grades fell to rookies who didn't pan out. Nobody celebrated the addition of defensive lineman Kobie Turner or wide receiver Puka Nacua.

Of course, Rams fans knew the 2023 NFL Draft rookie class was indeed special for Los Angeles. Faithful readers who may have missed that in 2023 certainly had the opportunity to catch up a year later with our own regraded draft class assessment. That was 2024. It only took CBS two additional years to follow suit.

Rams strategy innovated method to restock depleted roster

It's almost impossible to pierce the veil of history to recollect what the LA Rams were up against in 2023. This was a team that parted ways with several underachievers in the midst of the 2022 NFL season. Undrafted defensive lineman Michael Hoecht was cross-trained to become a serviceable edge rusher. (ala LB coach Chris Shula, btw).

And then, the team with 45 veterans had to reload half of their training camp roster in 2023.

It was a stew of chaos, anarchy, and struggles just to perform simple training camp drills and exercises in a timely fashion. That 2023 training camp was a mixed bag of hopes and uncertainties. At one point, the abundance of inexperienced rookies compelled the team to hire former players as training camp mentors to ensure progress was timely and assessable.

The effort to retain a select core of highly productive veterans and overlay them with a small army of inexperienced veterans and rookies was a bold strategy. But keep in mind that Los Angeles was not running blind or shooting from the hip.

Perhaps none of this would have been possible without the sage direction of elite defensive tackle Aaron Donald. Snead shared the tale with Good Morning Football host Peter Schrager:

"I'll partner with anybody. Just make sure they care"

Aaron Donald

That proved to be the secret sauce. Former Tenessee outside linebacker Byron Young, viewed as the steal of that draft, Unfortunately, he was lightly scouted as multiple teams viewed him as too old to be worthy of a drafted selection. Kobie Turner was viewed as too small for the NFL defensive line. Puka Nacua was considered too slow.

And yet, some fans still argue that the NFL draft is a science.

Les Snead has proven otherwise. And it's the power of that 2023 draft that is powering this team today. It's no wonder the Rams 2023 rookie class has been awarded a grade of A+. At least one draft analyst is mature enough to take accountability.

As always, thanks for reading.

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