LA Rams fail to land Sean McVay's heartthrob among Top 10 in draft

The NFL Rumors machinery was in overdrive of late with two consecutive days of the LA Rams rumored to be trading up on Day 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft. Of course, the first rumor was a bit generic, as ESPN's NFL Insiders Dan Graziano and Jeremy Fowler named the Rams as one of several teams in Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft who were ringing teams about trading up.

While that was not particularly interesting, the next day's NFL Rumors were very intriguing. The Athletic's Senior NFL Insider Dianna Russini reported that the LA Rams were specifically attempting to trade up into the Top-10 picks of Round 1, and were targeting a player that Rams HC Sean McVay had fallen in love with. The rumor was later confirmed by The Athletic's Jordan Rodrigue, who tempered the specificity of Russini's report to cover all bases about the Rams trading up or back in Round 1:

We had proposed several prospects who could be targeted by the Rams that were high on the draft board. We even hypothesized how much trading up might cost the team in terms of compensation to various spots within the Top 10 in this draft.

But as the New York Jets stepped up to the on-deck circle, they managed to negotiate a trade with the Minnesota Vikings to drop back to the 11th overall pick. The Vikings traded up to the 10th overall pick to land their quarterback of the future, former Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy.

Who was HC Sean 'in love with' among the Top 10 prospects of the 2024 NFL Draft? Was he selected or is he still on the board? We may never know the answer to that question. The Rams did their respective due diligence in terms of sizing up the entire Round 1 of the 2024 NFL Draft. Since the team has not been in this pressure cooker since 2016, it was wise to survey the landscape before live action begain.