FanPost

My 1st Round Pick for the Rams

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Due to compulsive trader, Les Snead, the Rams don't have a 1st round pick this year. As defending Super Bowl Champions (It doesn't get old saying that, does it? Let me try one more time. Super Bowl Champion Rams. Nope, still good) the Rams only would have had the 32nd overall pick, at the very end of the 1st round.

What if the Rams still had that pick? Who could they have selected at that slot?

Just for a fun game to change it up from the monotony of having to wait until the end of the 3rd round to make a pick in draft sims, I decided to pretend that the Rams had a 1st round pick and compile a type of BPA list. To come up with names, I looked at draft boards from ESPN, Lance Zierlein, PFF, Daniel Jeremiah's version 3.0 top 50 list and also looked at mock drafts. I tried to have it on "Difficult Mode" by eliminating some of the better players so that there wouldn't be more obvious picks. For example, Tyler Linderbaum is only ranked 32nd on DJ's top 50 board, so if it went chalk potentially he could still be available, but I didn't think it would be a very interesting game to play if we included him. So, if you don't see the name of one of your favorite prospects on my list of candidates (e.g. Zion Johnson the guard) it is probably because I decided to assume he was already picked.

Here is the list of 16 finalists. They are not listed in order of preference. Instead, I'm organizing them by position group.

QB: Matt Corral

RB: Kenneth Walker

WR: Christian Watson

OL: Bernhard Raimann, Tyler Smith

DL: Travis Jones, Logan Hall, Devonte Wyatt

EDGE: Nik Bonitto, David Ojabo, Arnold Ebiketie

LB: Quay Walker, Christian Harris

DB: Roger McCreary, Jalen Pitre, Jaquan Brisker

Which of the above 16 players would you choose? My choice was....

Arnold Ebiketie, EDGE defender, Penn State

6'2 3/8'' tall, 250 pounds, 34 1/8'' arms, 10 1/4'' hands, 81 3/4'' wingspan. 38'' vert jump, 10'8'' broad, 21 bench reps. I thought he had a good workout in the on field drills at the Combine, though he did have some body control issues in transitions when changing directions.

Ebiketie was born in Cameroon. His family moved to Maryland when he was 12. He was a high jumper and sprinter in track and played basketball. Late to start playing football, he was a WR, RB, safety and LB in high school. As a freshman at Temple, he weighed 200 pounds. Each season thereafter he progressively added a little more weight. He had 4 sacks and 8.5 TFLs in only 6 games in 2020. He transferred to PSU for 2021 and was impressive with 18 TFLs and 9.5 sacks, plus 2 blocked kicks.

He's aggressive, physical and surprisingly stout at the POA against the run and when setting the edge. Accurate with his hands, can convert speed to power, has variety of moves, good motor and effort. As a negative he only has average ability to redirect and he's not the most fluid and comfortable defender in space. He's solid enough to cover in short areas, but I don't expect him to be elite in coverage. In the Wisconsin game he appeared to get injured, but I wasn't able to find much information as to the nature of the injury. Looked like some type of foot or leg injury to me. Can rush out of 2, 3 or 4 point stances and even reduce down and rush as a 3-4 DE. Still an ascending player who has grown into his body and I think his best football is still in front of him.

ESPN 38th overall

Daniel Jeremiah 36th overall

Lance Zierlein 37th overall

PFF 41st overall

LZ's comp for him is Uchenna Nwosu (2nd round 2018), but in my opinion Ebiketie is a better prospect compared to Nwosu. As a starter for the Chargers last year, Nwosu had 5 sacks. He signed a 2 year $19 million contract to join the Seahawks.