Why Rams won't regret not prying 10th overall pick from Jets GM Joe Douglas

Who were the Rams targeting?

At the 10th overall pick, the LA Rams were very enthusiastically interested in trading up. which eliminates multiple rookie prospects who were linked to the Rams before the draft. Those prospects who were off the board included:

And there were several rookie quarterback prospects not listed above who simply made no sense for the team who were selected before the 10th pick, and whose early selection may have actually aided the options available when the team intended to select, and made the Round 1 pick.

Did the Rams miss out on a future All-Pro player? It's tough to call that type of missed opportunity before any of the rookies even play a single snap in their first NFL game. I will state the obvious, though. The Rams reportedly tried feverishly to trade into Round 1 of the 2023 NFL Draft for Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid but were unable to do so. Attempted trades, it seems, are quite commonplace on draft day.

Now we have to ask ourselves, who was the targeted rookie? And in the aftermath when all the dust has settled, did the Rams end up in a worse or better strategic position in terms of the strength of their roster?

The Rams focus on another tight end held it's own set of perils. But if the team truly had a hierarchy of rookie prospects that fell in the order of TE Brock Bowers, DT Byron Murphy, and OLB Jared Verse, then we have to discuss opportunity costs involved in selecting each of these rookies.