Rams 2021 draft: Defensive players that LA could target in round 2

Last time we took a lot at potential offensive targets for the LA Rams on day two of the draft. Today, it’s time for the other side of the ball.

The Rams hold the 57th pick in the second round and two third round picks by way of compensation. We don’t know for sure yet what picks those will be or which third rounder was sent to the Detroit Lions in the Matthew Stafford trade. But we can say that it is a safe bet that LA will have three picks on day two, barring other deals.

The following post isn’t a comprehensive breakdown of each player but a conversation starter on what the Rams could possibly do with their day two picks. It won’t be a comprehensive list of all notable names either and it is definitely an opportunity to add comments of which players should be added to the list. It may be that the player wasn’t on the list for a number of reasons, including that he may be projected to go too high for LA to reach or too low to have hit my radar on this particular search.

Keep these points in mind again, like last time:

• This list is not my ranking or any ranking. I don’t follow college football and my area of focus is with the NFL and the Los Angeles Rams. So I don’t even start to look at draftees until the season is over and the draft season is underway. Hence: conversation starter.
• Therefore, this list is not comprehensive. It’s a list of names and some names should probably belong on it that aren’t on it. If you see a name excluded that you’d like included, leave a comment! I can’t wait to hear about said player.
• I’ve started my search by looking at names from WalterFootball.com. This is not an endorsement of the opinions of Walter, necessarily, it’s just a place where draft prospects and round projections are listed. This is how I start to eliminate and add names to watch as the draft season goes on.
• This list trends outside of the first round. I’m sure a few of these names will be drafted in the first round this year, but I tried to skew lower-ranked prospects over attempting to find players who might “fall” during the draft process.
• The Rams are known for picking players who went to the Senior Bowl. Players with an asterisk were at the Senior Bowl this year.
• This list is defensive players. In the past, we looked at offensive players.

Here are 39 defensive names to starting chewing on. Please note that trying to project things like “position in a 3-4 defense” is incredibly difficult, especially at this stage, so bare me some slack for any potential errors and do feel free to comment corrections.

Cornerbacks

Greg Newsome II, Northwestern (6’1, 190)

Rodarius Williams, Oklahoma State (6’, 193)

Shaun Wade, Ohio State (6’1, 194)

Paulson Adebo, Stanford (6’1, 190)

Kary Vincent, LSU (5’10, 189)

Eric Stokes, Georgia (6’1, 185)

Elijah Molden, Washington (5’10, 190)

Israel Mukuamu, South Carolina (6’4, 205)

Asante Samuel, Jr., Florida State (5’10, 184)

Safeties

Paris Ford, Pittsburgh (6’, 190)

Andre Cisco, Syracuse (6’, 203)

Jevon Holland, Oregon (6’1, 200)

Richie Grant, UCF (6’, 194)

Caden Sterns, Texas (6’1, 205)

Hamsah Nasirildeen, Florida State (6’4, 212)

Damar Hamlin, Pittsburgh (6’1, 195)

Inside Linebackers

Chazz Surratt, North Carolina (6’1, 227)

Dylan Moses, Alabama (6’3, 233)

Baron Browning, Ohio State (6’3, 240)

Pete Werner, Ohio State (6’3, 239)

Tony Fields II, West Virginia (6’1, 222)

Paddy Fisher, Northwestern (6’4, 241)

3-4 Outside Linebackers

Joe Tryon, Washington (6’5, 262)

Joseph Ossai, Texas (6’4, 255)

Patrick Jones, Pittsburgh (6’4, 264)

Hamilcar Rashed, Jr, Oregon State (6’4, 236)

DeAngelo Malone, Western Kentucky (6’4, 230)

Quincy Roche, Miami (6’2, 243)

Azeez Olujari, Georgia (6’3, 240)

Jayson Oweh, Penn State (6’5, 252)

3-4 Defensive Ends

Dayo Odeyingbo, Vanderbilt (6’6, 280)

Marvin Wilson, Florida State (6’3, 319)

Jared Goldwire, Louisville (6’6, 305)

Ta’Quan Graham, Texas (6’4, 294)

Nose Tackles

Jay Tufele, USC (6’3, 305)

Marvin Wilson, Florida State (6’3, 319)

Tedarrell Slaton, Florida (6’5, 343)

Neil Farrell, LSU (6’4, 319)

Jerome Johnson, Indiana (6’3, 304)