GALLERY:

https://www.therams.com/photos/uniform-photos-rams-unveil-2026-primary-uniform-updates?utm_source=sfmcemail&utm_medium=041626_News_Brand_Refresh_Yellow&utm_campaign=04_16_2026&utm_term=Brand+Refresh+-+Gallery+-+Button&utm_id=130818&sfmc_id=00QUW00000S9vHH2AZ&aid=&CFC_RAMS=041626_News_Brand_Refresh_Yellow#4336faf5-d461-4a20-b6e1-f108ed0cf5b8

Sperm whales’ communication closely parallels human language, study finds
Analysis shows whales’ coda vocalizations are ‘highly complex’ and remarkably similar to our own

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/15/sperm-whales-alphabet-vocalizations-similar-humans

We may appear to have little in common with sperm whales – enormous, ocean-dwelling animals that last shared a common ancestor with humans more than 90 million years ago. But the whales’ vocalized communications are remarkably similar to our own, researchers have discovered.

Not only do sperm whale have a form of “alphabet” and form vowels within their vocalizations but the structure of these vowels behaves in the same way as human speech, the new study has found.

Sperm whales communicate in a series of short clicks called codas. Analysis of these clicks shows that the whales can differentiate vowels through the short or elongated clicks or through rising or falling tones, using patterns similar to languages such as Mandarin, Latin and Slovenian.

The structure of the whales’ communication has “close parallels in the phonetics and phonology of human languages, suggesting independent evolution”, the paper, published in the Proceedings B journal, states. Sperm whale coda vocalizations are “highly complex and represent one of the closest parallels to human phonology of any analyzed animal communication system”, it added.

The findings are the latest discovery about the lives of sperm whales by Project Ceti (standing for Cetacean Translation Initiative), an organization that has studied whales off the coast of Dominica in an attempt to find out what they are saying. Last month, the project released video of a sperm whale giving birth while other whales supported it.

Until the 1950s, it was not clear to scientists that sperm whales even vocalized but modern technology, including artificial intelligence, is helping unlock the language of these creatures – with unexpected similarities to our own speech.

“I think it’s another humbling moment that we’re not the only species with rich, communicative, communal and cultural lives,” said David Gruber, founder and president of Project CETI.

“These whales could be passing information along generation to generation to generation for over 20 million years. Humans now are just having the right tools and desire to be able to look at whale voices in this way to see the complexity that has been there all along.”

Studying sperm whales can be challenging – they dive deep underwater for up to 50 minutes in search of squid to eat, only surfacing for 10 minutes at a time. But it’s near the surface where the animals “chit-chat”, as Gruber put it, with their heads close together.

“If you watch sperm whales, they put their heads right together and click into each other’s heads,” he said. “It’s like if you wanted to talk to someone about a Chaucer novel or something – you wouldn’t want to do that from opposite ends of a football stadium. You would want to get real close to have a real sophisticated conversation.”

That sperm whale conversation sounds, to our ears, little more than a staccato morse code. But by removing the gaps between the clicks, researchers were able to find patterns strikingly similar to human speech. Much like how we alter our vocal folds to change an “A” sound into an “E” sound, whales can manipulate vowel sounds into different meanings.

Gašper Beguš, a linguist at University of California, Berkeley who led the new paper, said that this level of complexity in sperm whale speech was beyond anything he had studied in other creatures, such as parrots and elephants, and highlights the parallels between our lives and those of the whales.

“They have very different lives to us – they’re not stuck to the ground all the time, they float in the water, they sleep vertically,” said Beguš.

“Yet you realize that there’s a lot that unifies us. They have grandmas, they babysit each other’s calves, they give collaborative births, they’re very loud during a birth and so on. It’s such a distant intelligence, but in many ways very relatable.”

The new study shows that “sperm whale communication isn’t just about patterns of clicks – it involves multiple interacting layers of structure,” said Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at the Marine Mammal Institute who was not involved in the research. “With this study, we’re starting to see that these signals are organized in ways we didn’t fully appreciate before.”

The latest discovery around sperm whale speech has inched forward the possibility of someday fully understanding the creatures and even communicating with them. Project Ceti has set a goal of being able to comprehend 20 different vocalized expressions, relating to actions such as diving and sleeping, within the next five years.

Actually being able to fully grasp what the whales are saying, or being able to converse with them, is still a longer-term proposition, Gruber said, but not an outlandish one.

“It’s totally within our grasp,” he said. “We’ve already got a lot further than I thought we could. But it will take time, and funding. At the moment we are like a two-year-old, just saying a few words. In a few years’ time, maybe we will be more like a five-year-old.”

wv wrote:

The Rams met with Caleb Douglas.
6’4. 205 Lbs. 4.39 speed.
Projected going tween 4th and 6th rounds.

Footballguys: “Douglas is a towering receiver with good movement skills for his size. He has the versatility teams crave when rounding out a receiver room, playing both outside and in the slot, and impacting the passing game at all three depths. Vertically, he can outplay defensive backs in the air, translating as a red-zone threat. He transitions quickly and is comfortable after the catch. Douglas is worth watching throughout the draft process and is a legitimate threat to land on Day 2.”

w
v

This on Douglas above, in this thread:

zn wrote:

Douglas is a long, slender outside target with good production but uneven tape. He has enticing moments, showcasing his catch radius/ball skills on fades and deep throws. Douglas’ focus drops and an inability to win contested catches at a high enough rate can’t be overlooked, though. He shows quick acceleration for a tall receiver, but his top-end speed is relatively non-threatening to defenses. Douglas can expect to be crowded by NFL cornerbacks and forced to prove he can uncover. There are flashes to build on, but he’ll have to battle to make a roster as a backup.

Me: with this tweet I intervene editorially and underline teams with winning records in 2025.

…

NFL Researcher@NFL_Researcher
1st round picks to appear in a game in 2025…

Most

1. Chargers – 14
1. Ravens – 14
3. Cowboys – 13
4. Eagles – 12
4. Vikings – 12
4. Dolphins – 12
4. Falcons – 12

Fewest

27. Titans – 7
27. Panthers – 7
27. Broncos – 7
27. Seahawks – 7
31. Patriots – 5
32. Rams – 4

Lance Zierlein@LanceZierlein
From Texans Assistant GM Chris Blanco regarding the role of NIL and how it plays into evaluations come draft time.

from Nate Atkins, https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7193986/2026/04/14/rams-mailbag-nfl-draft-carnell-tate/?source=emp_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.a1A.W4xZ.brBb2L63tnBH&smid=ta-ios-share

Q: Is trading up for wide receiver Carnell Tate a real possibility, or am I getting my hopes up?
Q: Do you think the Rams have enough draft ammo to trade up for linebacker Sonny Styles? — Tim F.

A: I’ll tackle both of these in one answer because deciding the level to which the Rams will or should trade up is also interesting.

I don’t think the Rams will part with their 2027 first-round pick, just because of the opportunity to cash that in on a quarterback in next year’s loaded class. They would have to be so blown away by those players compared to alternatives and/or confident they can land a quarterback of the future after that pick — but that could take a second trade up.

Based on the Jimmy Johnson trade value chart, the Rams can get as high as the No. 8 pick by offering this year’s second-rounder, based on value. They can maybe add a little more to get to No. 6 from the Cleveland Browns, who seem like a strong trade-back option. That feels like the range where Tate and Styles are most likely to go. And that’s where the positions matter a ton.

To move up for Styles, the Rams would have to find another route to filling their No. 3 wide receiver role. Doing that with a third-round pick would likely mean the rookie receiver is either stashed or a higher-floor player with lower future upside. Los Angeles is trying to address both areas with this role, given that Puka Nacua and Davante Adams both missed three games last season, and Adams is in the final year of his contract at age 33.

Some view Tate as the only durable receiver in this class with No. 1 upside, and if the Rams want to hedge against the possibility of not paying Nacua, that would be a reason to move. But if they view this pick primarily as a No. 3 receiver who will become the No. 2 after Adams departs, the need to get the top wideout in the draft isn’t as high when USC’s Makai Lemon and Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson are also intriguing.

A more realistic trade-up option for me is a small move up for their favorite between Lemon and Tyson once Tate is off the board.

Q: I feel like the Rams are more likely to move down and either target Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. or an offensive lineman. What prospects would they consider staying at 13 and taking, if someone were to fall like Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love or Ohio State safety Caleb Downs?

A: It’s always hard to analyze whether a team should or will trade down because it depends on whether another team is coming up for someone. General managers hold draft picks tightly and only move them with intent. I don’t think we’ll see as many trades this year, with teams protecting picks for a 2027 draft expected to be much stronger than this year’s.

But it is a good thought exercise to identify the line in the sand where a trade offer isn’t worth taking because of who is available.

I’d put Tate, Lemon and Styles above that line. Those three are among the very best players at two of the only positions where the Rams could use a major talent upgrade. Of course, the answer can change if another team is willing to overpay — and especially if it is willing to part with a 2027 first-rounder. But I don’t think it’s worth trading down for fair 2026 value if any of those three are available.

I don’t put Downs in that camp because the Rams have already paid Quentin Lake and Kam Curl, have high hopes for Kam Kinchens and Jaylen McCollough, and also now have Trent McDuffie to give some inside snaps to. They just don’t have the room to make use of a versatile safety like Downs. If he’s available, it makes a trade down all the more likely.

Love is the interesting one. The Rams need his position about as little as they need any this year, but you could also argue that he is one of the three best players in the entire draft — to the degree where he could be a legitimate upgrade over Kyren Williams.

It gets tricky because what the Rams value most from the running back position is pass protection, and it’s hard to get better than Williams in that regard. They also believe there’s another surge coming from Blake Corum, and one of Corum or Williams would have to depart in a trade if Love is the pick.

But I think he’s of the talent level that they’d need to take him at No. 13 if trade offers aren’t coming and Tate, Lemon and Styles are all off the board.

In reality, if Love or Downs are available at No. 13, the Rams should be in a great spot to move back. That could be a slight move back, knowing the pick is for those players, so it doesn’t distort the rest of the board. Or, ideally, it’s a more sizable drop back to land either a Day 2 pick this year or a first-rounder next year.

Q: Is a tackle a realistic option? Everyone seems to be mocking a tackle to the Rams at No. 13.

A: It’s realistic, but I wouldn’t call it the most likely scenario.

If the Rams are taking a tackle at No. 13, it’s because they see him as a clear talent upgrade over Warren McClendon Jr. That can be worth upgrading a premium position and locking in a controlled salary for five years, which matters as McClendon enters a contract year.

With Georgia’s Monroe Freeling expected to go in the top 10, the group of options could include Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor and Utah’s two tackles, Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu. Each is talented but has some questions, and where the Rams land on the answers will dictate if they are real options: Do they see Mauigoa, Proctor and Fano as tackles rather than guards? Do they believe Lomu and Proctor can transition from left to right tackle?

The Rams need a swing tackle, so drafting a starter here could move McClendon back into that role. But McClendon found a much better fit by locking in at right tackle last season, so they’d also have to believe he’s ready to do both at a higher level than he has previously shown.

I expect the Rams to make multiple offensive line selections in this draft. Left tackle Alaric Jackson is the only starter under contract after next season, and it feels like a stretch for this team to extend McClendon and guards Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson if they also want to keep Nacua, Byron Young and Kobie Turner. They need depth at nearly every spot, too.

If the best player available is a tackle and it’s the No. 13 pick, I could see the upgrade happening. I would view it as less likely than a wide receiver, which is where the Rams have both present and future needs to solve, and know for certain that their current options are not good enough to fill.

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2026/04/13/rams-nfl-draft-offensive-line-jim-everett/89595904007/?taid=69dd8384bd318b0001e8252e&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Heading into the 2026 NFL Draft, everything seems to be pointing toward the Los Angeles Rams taking a wide receiver with their first pick. That’s logical considering the lack of depth behind Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, but it’s certainly not a must-draft position in Round 1.

Former Rams quarterback Jim Everett has another spot in mind for the Rams at No. 13 overall: offensive line.

In an interview with Action Network, Everett pointed out that four of the Rams’ five offensive linemen are only under contract through the 2026 season. Coleman Shelton, Steve Avila, Kevin Dotson and Warren McClendon Jr. are all set to be free agents in 2027 if they don’t re-sign with the Rams beforehand, which is a slight problem for Los Angeles.

For that reason, he could “easily see” the Rams using their top pick on an offensive lineman, specifically a tackle who can provide some insurance behind Alaric Jackson and McClendon.

“Four of the five Rams’ offensive linemen are in the final year of their contract,” Everett said. “You can’t negotiate with every single one of them, and you have no leverage if you don’t have anybody that could possibly take their spot. A general manager is a general manager, not just this year, but hopefully for years. And so job security would mean I need to find somebody that I could put leverage on my right tackle, because I don’t want to pay my right tackle $25 million next year.

“A rookie allows you to pay him a lot less for the first four, possibly five years, depending on options. So I think offensive lineman make fiscal sense. It makes sense as far as being in development. And then maybe if you get a guy like the Utah kid (Spencer) Fano, maybe he plays guard for a minute, right? He learns the system before he moves out. So I can easily see an offensive lineman there.”

The Rams should feel good about their starting offensive line right now, but it’s hardly solidified for the future. Though the Rams are unlikely to let all four players leave in 2027 once their contracts expire, it’ll also be difficult to re-sign each one of them.

Too bad Jared Verse doesn’t come with an “off” switch.

from an old post:

zn wrote:

The Rams don’t draft CBs that well, but are very good with CBs they acquired as veterans through free agency and trades or as cut “ronin” types. And it’s not always the case that they were stars before.

2 lists. The draft picks, and then the “acquired by other means” types.

Draft picks (not one is higher than round 3): Long, Rochell, Durant, Kendrick, Tomlinson

Trades, FAs, reclamation projects: Troy Hill; Nickell Robey-Coleman; Darious Williams; Marcus Peters; Aqib Talib; Ramsey; Ahkello Witherspoon; Tre’Davious White,; Emmanuel Forbes; Roger McCreary).

In contrast, they are very good at drafting and developing young safeties.

With CB, though, they just do better with veterans they didn’t draft. That’s an old thing that goes back to 2017 and has remained consistent since then.

Now add McDuffie and Watson. Who join McCreary and Forbes. We’ll see if they draft one too.

On one of her podcasts with Greg Rosenthal, Jourdan Rodrigue said that the Rams “can’t draft corners.” Maybe that’s one reason Pleasant is gone. Maybe they can now.

James Tate@JamesTate121
Too on point not to share, “Aussie reply to Trump rant about NATO not being there for us.

Mate. You run a country with 600,000 homeless people sleeping on the street tonight. A country where 40% of adults can’t cover a $400 emergency without borrowing money. A country where insulin costs more than a car payment and people are rationing it to survive. A country where medical debt is the number 1 cause of bankruptcy. A country where women are dying in hospital car parks because doctors are too scared of abortion laws to treat a miscarriage.
You lock up more of your own citizens than any nation on earth. More than China. More than Russia. More than North Korea. The land of the free has 2 million people in cages, and a quarter of them haven’t even been convicted of anything. They’re just too poor to make bail.
Your life expectancy is going backwards. You’re the only developed nation where that’s happening. Your infant mortality rate is worse than Cuba’s. Your kids do active shooter drills between maths and English while you sell the gunmaker’s stock to your mates.
Your minimum wage hasn’t moved in 15 years. You’ve got teachers working 2 jobs and veterans sleeping under bridges and you just spent a trillion dollars flattening a country that didn’t attack you.
And you’ve got a convicted felon, adjudicating raping, paedophile protecting, porn star shagging insurrectionist running the biggest dumpster fire war campaign since the Taliban thanked you very much for losing again.
And you’re calling Greenland poorly run?
Greenland has universal healthcare. Free education. One of the lowest incarceration rates in the world. Nobody goes bankrupt there because they got sick. Nobody dies in a waiting room because their insurance said no.
“NATO wasn’t there when we needed them.” When exactly was that, champ? September 11? Because NATO invoked Article 5 for the first and only time in history FOR YOU. Soldiers from dozens of countries deployed, fought, bled, and died in Afghanistan FOR YOU. Australia wasn’t even in NATO and we still showed up. For 20 years.
And you pulled out at 2am without telling anyone and left them to deal with the mess.
So maybe before you start calling other countries poorly run, have a look at your own backyard, you spray-tanned aluminium siding salesman. The only thing poorly run in this picture is your fucking mouth.

Ballet needs to be in the Olympics.

I’m serious. That was athletic as hell. pic.twitter.com/uCHT3n0MCl

— Wholesome Side of 𝕏 (@itsme_urstruly) March 9, 2026

NFL Researcher@NFL_Researcher
Most single-season pass TD vs teams to make the playoffs in the Super Bowl era:

1. Joe Burrow (2024) – 25*
2. Justin Herbert (2021) – 23*
3. Dan Marino (1986) – 22*
3. Lamar Jackson (2024) – 22
3. Matthew Stafford (2025) – 22
6. Peyton Manning (2013) – 21
6. Patrick Mahomes (2018) – 21

NFL Researcher@NFL_Researcher
Point differential at home in 2025…

Top 5

1. Jaguars (+98)
2. Patriots (+90)
3. Rams (+86)
4. Seahawks (+83)
5. Lions (+76)

Point differential on the road in 2025…

Top 5

1. Seahawks (+108)
2. Rams (+86)
3. Patriots (+80)
4. Ravens (+58)
4. 49ers (+58)

NFL Researcher@NFL_Researcher
Highest percentage of receptions for 1st down or TD in 2025…

1. Davante Adams – 85.0%
2. Tetairoa McMillan – 78.6%
3. George Pickens – 78.5%
4. Jameson Williams – 75.4%
5. Jaylen Waddle – 75.0%
6. Romeo Doubs – 74.5%
7. Courtland Sutton – 70.3%
8. Hunter Henry – 70.0%
9. Tee Higgins – 69.5%
10. Drake London – 67.6%

>Minimum 50 receptions

from Selecting the Best NFL Draft Pick Ever for Every Team: https://www.si.com/nfl/selecting-best-nfl-draft-pick-ever-for-every-team

Los Angeles Rams: Deacon Jones, DE
Selection: 1961, 14th round (No. 186)

Jones played in an era before sacks were official in 1982; otherwise, he’d likely be regarded as perhaps the finest defensive end to ever live. Jones was a 14th-round pick out of Mississippi Valley State and became part of the famed Fearsome Foursome in Los Angeles. Jones totaled an unofficial 173.5 sacks in his 14-year career, including at least 21 sacks on three occasions during the 14-game schedule era. A five-time first-team All-Pro, Jones was the benchmark of his era for pass rushing.