The Rams have different ideas than many teams about the NFL draft, but on one point they might go along with the crowd this week.
Everyone is looking at outside linebackers and other so-called edge rushers, including the defending Super Bowl champions.
In the draft prospect rankings put together by NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah, edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan is No. 1, Jermaine Johnson II of Florida State and Kayvon Thibodeaux of Oregon make the top 10, and George Karlaftis of Purdue also appears before any quarterbacks.
There is speculation that even the Buffalo Bills, who already signed free agent Von Miller away from the Rams, could show interest in drafting an edge rusher.
“I’ve never met a coach or a GM who said we have too many pass rushers,” Jeremiah, a former college scout for pro teams, said in a draft preview conference call with reporters on Thursday.
This pertains to the Rams in part because of Miller’s decision to leave for big bucks in Buffalo.
As with their likely interest in picking offensive linemen during the three-day draft that starts Thursday in Las Vegas, the Rams’ need at outside linebacker is created by the departures of key players since their Super Bowl LVI victory.
Miller is gone after helping put the Rams over the top in his half-season in L.A. Also, Ogbo Okoronkwo signed with the Houston Texans after playing one-quarter of defensive snaps in his second and third seasons with the Rams. And Justin Lawler went to the Tennessee Titans.
Leonard Floyd will still hold down the other outside linebacker spot, where he had 9½ sacks in the 2021 regular season, second on the team to defensive tackle Aaron Donald’s 12½.
But with Miller go nine sacks in the last eight regular-season and postseason games, including two of the Rams’ Super Bowl record-tying seven against the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow.
If the season started today, which would be weird, the depth chart at Miller’s old position might read: Justin Hollins, Terrell Lewis, Chris Garrett.
Hollins spent most of 2021 on injured reserve and is going into the final year of his contract. Lewis has fought chronic injuries since being drafted in the third round in 2020. Garrett hardly played after the 2021 seventh-round pick had a preseason bout with COVID-19.
Lewis is the only outside linebacker the Rams have drafted on the first two days of the draft since they took Robert Quinn, then listed as a defensive end, with the 14th overall pick in 2011. That’s the year before Les Snead became their general manager.
The team’s starters at outside linebacker in Sean McVay’s five years as coach have been less likely to arrive in the draft (Okoronkwo, Samson Ebukam) than to come via free agency (Floyd, Clay Matthews) and trade (Miller, Dante Fowler).
“You’re certainly not naive to the fact that you lose some key members at those very important spots, and what are the different ways to address some of those voids and vacancies?” McVay said last week when he was asked about needs at outside linebacker and on the offensive line. “Some of it might be in-house, some of it might be through the draft, some of it might be still through free agency. And there’s always the trade option.”
The draft is unlikely to give the Rams an immediate starter at outside linebacker – or any position – because they have no turns in the first and second rounds after giving up those picks in the trades for Matthew Stafford and Miller.
Barring further transactions, the Rams’ first pick will be Friday in the third round (104th overall), and then they’d have seven more in the fourth through seventh rounds (142nd, 175th, 211th, 212th, 218th, 238th and 253rd).
Here are some draft prospects who could be available when the Rams pick and help to fill the team’s needs at outside linebacker. They include players who were defensive ends in college but could thrive at OLB in the pros:
• Dominique Robinson, Miami (Ohio): A prep quarterback and a wide receiver his first two years in college (McVay’s school), he’s still learning the edge.
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• DeAngelo Malone, Western Kentucky: His 32½ career sacks (for Rams tight end Tyler Higbee’s school) are ninth in the NCAA since 2005.
• Sam Williams, Mississippi: All-SEC as a senior after recording an Ole Miss-record 12½ sacks.
• Christopher Allen, Alabama: A big talent who lost playing time to injuries at Alabama. Did the Rams have their fill of that with Terrell Lewis?
• Amaré Barno, Virginia Tech: The Rams are conscious of prospects’ special teams’ potential, and that could draw them to Barno in the later rounds.
• Jesse Luketa, Penn State: Congo-born and Ottawa-raised, he showed his desire when he left his family to play high school football in Pennsylvania. That’s life on the edge.