Rams catch a falling star makes sense for 3 prospects, not for 3 others

How do you have your 2024 NFL Draft big board set up? Or do you allow the draft to fall as it will, but perk up as the picks near to that of the LA Rams? How do you feel about prospects falling on draft night? Do you find the excitement building to the point of euphoria? Or do you wonder about the reasons why a prospect is falling, and want to learn more about why a player in the green room does not hear his name called out early on draft night?

The LA Rams are one of the teams that will make a selection on Day 1, and will influence the way this draft flows through to the end. But the decision-making process that must occur during the 10 minutes allowed between the 18th overall pick selection and the 19th overall selection.

Right on schedule, the LA Rams rumors are heating up that HC Sean McVay loves a specific player in this draft, and the front office is trying to accommodate him by trading up into the Top-10 picks. Is that a strategy that will pay off this year? Perhaps. But like all pre-negotiated trades on draft day, they are only executed under very specific circumstances. In the end, if the player who the Rams want is on the board, and no prospect of great interest is on the board for the trade partner, the trade could take place. But even in those cases, it's still an auction. Other teams can offer better compensation.

That is why the team will have over two hours before they step up to the podium to announce their pick at 19.

That seems like a lot of time if everything goes according to plan. And it's that need to be prepared for anything that demands so much prep time to be ready for what may happen. But the unforeseen does happen, and prospects viewed as certain Top-10 prospects have been known to fall on draft night. So even those players who are not expected to be on the board with the 19th overall pick have to be given a yay or nay beforehand.

So who is regarded as a "Top 20" prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft? To ensure that the list is objectively determined, I have pulled the 2024 NFL Draft Tracker prospect rankings to set the stage for who should be among the top prospects selected. From that list, I then applied how that single prospect might fit on this roster for the 2024 NFL season, compared to others who may or may not be on the board at that time.

While the concept of 'Best Player Available,' is a commonly used term, there is inherent positional value that makes a blindside offensive tackle more valuable to a team than an offensive center. An excellent wide receiver typically has more inherent value to a team than a tight end. An elite outside linebacker has more inherent value to a team than an inside linebacker, and so on.