Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Ty Hamilton, iDT, Ohio State at #148…

• 6’3, 300lbs, 23 years old
• Described as “quiet but cold-blooded” by the OSU coaches
• Ryan Day: “He’s the ultimate team player. Doesn’t say a whole lot, but goes to work every day.”
• Plays with two-gap technique, tape shows his ability to stack and shed in the run game
• Hasn’t missed a second of playing time due to injury, has played in all 55 games over the past 4 seasons
• Initially projected to be a 3rd round pick

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Jarquez Hunter, RB from Auburn (pick #117)…

• 5’9, 204lbs, 22 years old
• Ran a 4.40 40-yard dash at the combine
• Squats as much weight as Saquon Barkley, considered a weight-room warrior
• 42 carries of 10 yards or more, which ranked 6th in the FBS in 2024
• Ranked #2 in the FBS with 36.6% of his 2024 carries resulted in a first down or touchdown
• Fumbled 3x in 2024 on 187 touches, can struggle in pass protection due to size/technique

Adam GrosbardAdamGrosbard
Per PFF, new Rams RB Jarquez Hunter averaged 4.1 yards *after contact* per carry in 2024

Jarquez Hunter
Auburn, 4SR

BACKGROUND: Jarquez (jar-KWEZ) Hunter, one of eight children, grew up on his family’s farm with his grandmother (Shelia Murrell, who played basketball at Jackson State), and mother (Kenyatta Ragsdale) in the small town of Philadelphia in central Mississippi. He also has a relationship with his father (Kenshay Hunter), who lives in Texas. Described as a “country boy,” Hunter played multiple sports throughout childhood, along with riding horses, fishing, hunting and riding four-wheelers. Hunter grew up idolizing Walter Payton and started playing football at age 6. He worked his way from a backup to be one of the top youth football players in the area. Hunter attended Neshoba Central High, where he was a four-year varsity letterman on the football team, playing on offense (running back) and defense (linebacker). His breakout season came as a sophomore, when he rushed for 1,986 yards on 231 carries (8.6 average) and 26 touchdowns, adding 81 tackles, eight sacks and two interceptions. As a junior, Hunter led Neshoba Central to a 10-win season and the 2019 regional title. He earned district MVP honors with 2,088 rushing yards (9.8 yards per carry) and 29 touchdowns, plus 234 receiving yards and a pair of touchdown grabs. He also had 72 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, seven sacks and four interceptions (three returned for touchdowns). As a senior, Hunter rushed for 1,687 yards and 22 touchdowns in just eight games, which earned him the 2020 5A Mr. Football award. He finished his prep career with 5,834 rushing yards and a state-record 93 touchdowns, breaking the previous mark of 92 held by former Oklahoma, USFL and NFL running back Marcus Dupree, who is Hunter’s distant cousin. Hunter’s 93 total touchdowns came in six different ways: rushing, receiving, fumble return, interception return, punt return and kick return. Hunter lettered in basketball and track at Neshoba Central and qualified for states as a sophomore with a personal best in the 100 meters of 11.04 seconds. As a senior, he also won the 5A powerlifting championship (198-pound weight class) with a 300-pound bench press, 576-pound squat and 575-pound deadlift. A three-star recruit, Hunter was the 43rd-ranked running back in the 2021 recruiting class and the No. 12 recruit in Mississippi. Following his breakout sophomore season, he received his first scholarship offer (Ole Miss) in February 2019. Several schools followed, including Louisville, Memphis, Mississippi State, Tennessee and Virginia. Hunter was considered an Ole Miss lean until Auburn, his favorite school from childhood because of Cam Newton, entered the mix late. Newly hired offensive line coach Will Friend, also a Neshoba Central alum, convinced the Tigers’ staff to offer Hunter a scholarship a few weeks before signing day. Hunter was the 10th-ranked recruit in former head coach Bryan Harsin’s first class at Auburn. He made the SEC Academic Honor Roll four straight seasons and graduated (in three years) with his degree in natural resource management (May 2024). He accepted his invitation to the 2025 Senior Bowl.

YEAR (GP/GS) CAR YDS AVG TD REC YDS AVG TD NOTES
2021: (13/2) 89 593 6.66 3 12 61 5.08 1 SEC All-Freshman; enrolled July 2021
2022: (12/1) 104 668 6.42 7 17 224 13.18 2 20-yard passing TD
2023: (12/12) 159 909 5.72 7 18 118 6.56 0 Led team in rushing; missed the season opener (suspension)
2024: (12/12) 187 1,201 6.42 8 21 155 7.38 1 First Team All-SEC; led team in rushing
Total: (49/27) 539 3,371 6.25 25 68 558 8.21 4

STRENGTHS:
● Densely built with bricks and mortar
● Teammates tell tales of his legendary weight-room work ethic (squatted 600 pounds as freshman)
● Led SEC with 6.4 yards per carry in 2024
● Terrific run balance to drop pads and keep feet through contact
● Defenders better finish him to the ground, because he won’t surrender easily
● Hits burst button when given a lane
● Ability to slash angles leads to chunk runs (42 carries of 10 yards or more sixth most in the FBS in 2024)
● Caught ball well as a screen target
● Regular on kickoff coverage all four seasons (10 career tackles on special teams)
● Also has experience returning kicks — averaged 20.7 yards per return (25 attempts for 517 yards)
● Rushing production improved each of his four seasons

WEAKNESSES:
● Inconsistent vision working through all the smoke at line of scrimmage
● More likely to barrel into first-level bodies than show patience for developing holes
● Setting up moves at second level isn’t natural for him
● Struggles to quickly regain speed after being slowed down
● Fumbled three times on 187 carries in 2024
● Missed assignments in pass pro and communication needs to be better
● Has projectable frame as blocker, but blitzing linebackers can give him the shake
● Scouts say there are “no concerns” about his character, but Hunter was briefly suspended from the team during 2023 offseason

SUMMARY: A two-year starter at Auburn, Hunter was the featured back in head coach Hugh Freeze’s RPO-leaning offense. After backing up Tank Bigsby for two seasons, he led the Tigers in rushing as a junior and senior and left the Plains fourth on the school’s all-time rushing list (behind Bo Jackson, Cadillac Williams and James Brooks). A weight-room demon and state champion powerlifter in high school, Hunter has a cut-up physique, and his physical, balanced run style makes him a chore to tackle (ranked No. 2 in the FBS with 36.6 percent of his 2024 carries resulted in a first down or touchdown). He isn’t the most creative or elusive runner at the line of scrimmage or in space, but he keeps his legs pumping to carry tacklers draped on his back. Overall, Hunter’s vision and tempo tend to run hot and cold, but he is a hammerhead with downhill burst to run through holes and into contact without gearing down. Along with his hungry run style, his impact on special teams will separate him on an NFL depth chart.

GRADE: 3rd-4th round

Josaiah Stewart— good use of "the long arm"

LDE–holds the edge, reads to makes sure it is not a run … gets his inside arm on inside shoulder of the TE, then extends, grabs and yanks the TE by then closed pic.twitter.com/kRtZ1NXOs3

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) April 26, 2025

Cornell@gqscholar
Jarquez Hunter is a faster version of KW/Corum. Unfortunately, he fumbles like KW, too 🙂
With that said, he is a breakaway back that the rams needed.

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Think it’s safe to say the Rams won’t go many years without taking at least one RB in the draft. Always adding there…

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Per ESPN Research, Rams’ 8-straight years drafting a running back is the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest streak by any team since Washington from 2011-2020.

Bit of a coincidence that McVay was on that Washington staff. Can imagine many are pissed over this pick

Nick Hamilton@NickHamilton213
Spoke w/ #Ramshouse GM Les Snead & HC Sean McVay on drafting TE Terrance Ferguson; qualities that caught their attention on & off the field

Sean McVay: “Most importantly, when you trust the vetting and the background that’s done on the human being, what he’s done, what he’s about, his play energy, his tape talks to you in a way that’s reflective of what we feel like looks like a Ram. Ultimately, it’s about getting to work with him. I think he’s going to be in a room with a lot of great guys and I’m excited for Scott Huff to be able to help that group continue to develop.”

Field Yates@FieldYates
The depth of the 2025 draft class has long been viewed around the NFL as the strength of this class.

Plenty of talent on the board as we gear up for Day 3 here in Green Bay. 15 of my top 100 prospects remain undrafted up to this point.

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.”

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.”