Most Unexpected Moments From The Los Angeles Rams 2024 Draft?

The Los Angeles Rams are now on the other side of the biggest weekend of the NFL offseason. With the dust still settling on their 10 newly drafted players, let us take a moment to recognize how unusual and tendency-breaking this draft was for the Sean McVay -led Rams by looking at the most unexpected twists and turns from the 2024 Rams draft.

1. Los Angeles Rams Use 1st Round Pick

According to Les Snead, all options were on the table for the Rams; trading up, trading back, or using the darn thing. For the first time since 2016, they used the darn pick. They couldn’t have used it at a better time, needing to rebuild their defense that was suddenly missing its load-bearing wall, Aaron Donald .

There was plenty of smokescreen around what the Rams would do in the first round, both trading up and trading back, but the Rams opted to draft Jared Verse , a player who could address their top team need quarterback pressure.

2. Discipline and Need-Based Drafting

The Rams took a patient and pragmatic approach to this year’s draft. This in and of itself could be seen as the most expected element of LA’s draft weekend. They are known for being one of the teams that say they draft BPA (best player available), but they are one of the only teams that actually follow through on that. With every pick, an easy and direct connection can be made to an obvious roster need.

The Rams even pulled the trigger on Joshua Karty , a kicker, in the sixth round.

3. Defense First

It has been a while since the Rams have drafted a defender as high as they did this year. In fact, the last time the Rams drafted a defender higher than Jared Verse at 19 was Aaron Donald at 13 in 2014. But they didn’t stop there they then traded up to get Braden Fiske at 39. This made Fiske the second-highest-drafted defender since Donald.

The Rams have only used their first pick in any McVay-era draft on a defender once. That was for Taylor Rapp in 2019. He was taken at 61 in the back portion of the second round. The last time the Rams drafted two defenders with their first two picks in any given draft was over 20 years ago in 2003 when McVay had just gotten his driver’s license.

4. Rams Wait Until 6th Round To Add Receiver

Wide receiver isn’t an immediate need for the Rams, but it quickly could become one. Demarcus Robinson , Tutu Atwell, and Ben Skowronek are all free agents at the end of the season. Cooper Kupp will be 31 shortly and his injury history is eyebrow raising to say the least. That leaves the Rams with two healthy receivers on the roster heading into the 2025 season, Puka Nacua and 2024’s 6th-round pick Jordan Whittington .

Whittington has interesting upsides as a physical and athletic receiver and the Rams have a nice track record of finding diamonds in the rough at the position in later rounds. But for Whittington, that is all speculative at this point.

It is hard not to look at the 83rd pick, that was used to draft Michigan running back Blake Corum , and look at the receivers that were available at that point in the draft and wonder what could have been. Roman Wilson , Jalen McMillian, Luke McCaffrey and Javon Baker were all still on the board at that pick.

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