articles & info on Rams first 2 draft days

Adam Grosbard@AdamGrosbard
Sean McVay on how Rams saw this year’s draft board: “There’s a lot of appreciation for let’s just say your top-100 players and there’s maybe not as big of discrepancy between those guys that are in that top-15 to those guys that are maybe in our 85-100.”

Rams mix nostalgia, traits and possibility into their Day 2 selections

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6311541/2025/04/26/rams-draft-picks-terrance-ferguson-josaiah-stewart/?source=emp_shared_article

LOS ANGELES — Watching Oregon tight end Terrance Ferguson’s tape brought Sean McVay back to a different time.

In 2013, the Los Angeles Rams head coach was the tight ends coach in Washington, and about to get a promotion to offensive coordinator. He had just cut his coaching teeth with veteran Pro-Bowler Chris Cooley, to this day one of his favorite players of all time, and that spring was evaluating then-University of Cincinnati tight end Travis Kelce with the scouting department.

The way Ferguson moves on the field, McVay said Friday night after the Rams selected him 46th overall, reminds him of both players.

“Those are big, lofty comparisons,” McVay added, “so I’m certainly not saying that he’s those guys yet. But there’s a lot of instincts. He plays with a change of pace when the ball gets in his hands. I think he can play in the C area (the C gap for blocking or blocking and detaching into a route), he’s moved around the formation. When things go off-schedule he shows what a feel he has to find soft spots. … I’m really excited to get him in that tight end room.”

That group currently consists of veterans Tyler Higbee (who is on the last year of his existing contract), Colby Parkinson and third-year player Davis Allen. Higbee was recovering from injury for most of last season, but overall the group wasn’t as productive as McVay hoped. Friday, he alluded to Ferguson’s addition potentially helping him scheme “some different things” into his offense, including more 12 personnel but also utilizing Ferguson in the hybrid receiver role out of 11 personnel that McVay has designed for some of his players in the past.

“He’s a stud, we’re very excited about him,” McVay said. Ferguson was such a popular match with the Rams (including as a top choice on some scouts’ and coaches’ “Make Him a Ram” survey) that they even discussed whether they should take him at No. 26, though overall the preference of the group was to trade back into the second round.

The connection for McVay only deepened when he heard early in the offseason that Ferguson was training with another of his former favorite players, tight end Logan Paulsen.

Paulsen particularly put Ferguson through a tough regimen in film study and in some of the finer technical elements of blocking and those requirements in the NFL.

“Obviously Logan is a guy that means a whole lot to me,” said McVay, “… for (Ferguson) to have spent the last four months with (Paulsen) working on some different things that allowed Logan to be such a successful player — above the neck, physically, mentally, emotionally, all of those things — he’s been in good hands.”

McVay didn’t just catch flashes of former players he’d either coached or scouted when studying Ferguson through the offseason — he also saw some of his own plays. Will Stein, the offensive coordinator at Oregon under head coach Dan Lanning, runs a multiple spread offense that utilized Ferguson as a blocker, motion player, and receiver and aims to manipulate space in the passing game.

“We kind of take a lot of stuff from the Rams offense, we watch some tape on them (at Oregon),” said Ferguson, grinning while speaking virtually with reporters shortly after he was picked. “There’s definitely some carryover, especially Coach Sean McVay is one of the greats and he always has a great offense — like you said, using motions to attack space and everything like that.

“I’m super excited to … get the playbook and dive into it.”

Scouts believed Ferguson still has his best football ahead of him after he posted 43 catches for 591 yards and three touchdowns during the 2024 season at Oregon. His after-the-catch ability and knack for converting downs also appealed to scouts and coaches (72.1 percent of his catches last season resulted in first downs or touchdowns, per The Athletic draft analyst Dane Brugler) and his 4.63-second 40-yard dash (the fastest at the NFL combine among tight ends who tested) illustrated the straight-line speed that helped Ferguson to a 25.6 percent explosive catch rate.

“I think I bring a lot of things, versatility being the biggest, being able to stretch the field and creating mismatches with linebackers or safeties but also being able to put my nose on somebody,” he said.

Josaiah Stewart, the outside linebacker out of Michigan whom the Rams selected with pick No. 90, is a little bit of a nostalgic pick who also follows their pattern of late. The high-motor pass rusher has the athleticism and personality to fill the role in the five-man rush packages left by Michael Hoecht in free agency.

The two aren’t the same player by any means. Hoecht was a converted defensive tackle and undrafted free agent, but had a knack for churning out extra work and had a technical savvy for a variety of roles in the Rams’ evolving defense under three separate coordinators, that by the 2025 season he became a leader for the young group.

Stewart will now be the youngest, but he already has the personality and position flexibility to slot into what the Rams call their “Cheetah” package, which presents extra pass rushers who can either purely rush, simulate pressure or even drop into coverage in some instances.

“I think, when you look at it, if you’re able to present different rushers throughout the course of the game. … When you can change up your pitches. … Yes, he does have the ability to project into doing those types of things,” said McVay, “there’s a similar system in regard to what (he had) been doing at Michigan. You see a versatile skill set to be able to rush, to be able to cover.”

Stewart also follows a similar path as young stars Jared Verse, Braden Fiske and Kobie Turner. Like them, he first attended a smaller school (Coastal Carolina, where Stewart led the Sun Belt in sacks) before transferring and excelling at a larger program.

“It worked the last few times we had done that,” Snead said with a grin.

As they did in 2023 and 2024, the Rams again leaned on their personality assessments of players (tests, interviews with traveling special assistants and bespoke surveys like “Make him a Ram”) to identify fits.

“Probably with him, too, it comes to life on the field,” Snead said of Stewart. “(He is) someone who is just tenacious, plays urgent. He’s just gonna give more effort than the next guy. And then you notice it, and … to see someone of (shorter stature) go, ‘You know what, I’m gonna go toe-to-toe with those pulling guards, getting that dirty … play with those big tackles especially against Alabama’ … So, somewhat of a smaller stature (Stewart is 6-foot-1 and 249 pounds). … To see him play tough and physical in there kind of reminds us a lot of the guys that we have.”

If Snead and McVay had not already expressed that he was “a Ram” in their definition of the word a few minutes prior in their news conference, an emotional Stewart certainly took care of that on his own.

“I’m just happy to be a f—— Ram. Let’s do it.”

Jim Youngblood 53@53_jim70721
no complaints so far. Not lighting the world on fire, but seems to be solid draft on paper. I don’t grade drafts until a couple years down the road, but to me these are three guys that may not start — but will contribute a lot as rooks … and eventuall start. But, RB may start

some day, but a good 1B but will get snaps right away, like the breakaway ability …