Los Angeles Rams NFL Draft 2025 guide: Picks, predictions and key needs

By Jourdan Rodrigue

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6233149/2025/03/31/los-angeles-rams-2025-nfl-draft-picks-needs-predictions-guide/

A season after a surprise run to the playoffs that ended in a wild-card loss, the Rams won the NFC West and lost to the eventual Super Bowl-champion Eagles in the divisional round in 2024. Matthew Stafford is returning in 2025 after his representatives were given permission to explore a trade. Meanwhile, the young defensive line has quickly become a team strength. That’s put the Rams in position to compete for another division title and you know McVay and company would love to find themselves in Super Bowl contention after winning the 2021 championship.

Scouting the decision-makers

Last draft, the Rams made a first-round selection for the first time since 2016 when picking outside linebacker Jared Verse — the 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year. This year, it would hardly be a surprise to see GM Les Snead trade back from No. 26 to stockpile more picks, especially a second-rounder given up to trade up for Braden Fiske last year (he was a finalist for DROY).

Rams’ key free-agent signings
• WR Davante Adams: Two years, $46 million
• DT Poona Ford: Three years, up to $29.6 million
• C Coleman Shelton: Two years, $12 million

Rams’ key positions of need

Cornerback: The Rams re-signed Ahkello Witherspoon to a one-year deal and Cobie Durant, who has played nickel and outside corner, enters the final year on his rookie contract. The Rams need to look at this position group in the draft with veteran starter Darious Williams on the second year of a three-year deal.

Inside linebacker: Omar Speights really progressed through the latter part of the year and if he takes another step forward he could secure that full-time ILB1 spot. They added Nate Landman in free agency after Christian Rozeboom and Jake Hummel left in free agency and will likely still look to the draft here.

Right tackle: Starting right tackle and team captain Rob Havenstein will be back in 2025, and playing on the final year of his contract. The Rams need to identify the heir to his position.

Tight end: McVay’s background with the tight end position, his efforts to trade up for Brock Bowers last draft and that Tyler Higbee will play on the final year of his contract in 2025 mean this talented young class can’t be ruled out. It’s tough to predict especially where the top tight ends in this draft class will be drafted because there simply is not a ton of precedent for the position having massive success in the first round. The Rams may look at the second and third rounds here.

Receiver: Yes, the Rams added Davante Adams in free agency and yes, they have Puka Nacua, who has 2,476 receiving yards in his first two seasons. But McVay and the Rams have a way of finding exceptional receivers beyond Round 1 (Nacua, fifth round in 2023; Cooper Kupp, third round in 2017). Jordan Whittington (sixth round in 2024) could take on a bigger role in 2025.

Byron Young had 9 sacks last season (including playoffs). BY is an underrated piece to the defensive front.

With the loss of M. Hoecht, I expect BY to take another step up in year 3. The Rams DLine/Edge unit are young but ultra talented and growing together. A tough front! pic.twitter.com/mUeTgXPgKg

— RAMS ON FILM (@RamsOnFilm) April 3, 2025

Record high can’t afford health care: Gallup

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5228018-health-care-record-high-unable-to-afford-gallup-report/

The share of U.S. adults who have recently been unable to afford health care has reached a new high, according to report published by Gallup, with Black and Hispanic adults accounting for much of the increase.

The Gallup report, conducted in partnership with the nonprofit West Health, found that 11 percent of U.S. adults — roughly 29 million — have recently been unable to afford or access quality health care. That marks a 3 percentage point increase since 2021. The analysis indicated, however, that there was no “meaningful change” in the proportion of white U.S. adults or middle- to high-income earners in that time.

“The most notable increases since 2021 have occurred among Hispanic adults (up eight percentage points to 18%), Black adults (up five points to 14%,) and the lowest-income households, earning under $24,000 per year (up 11 points to 25%),” the report found.

Adults who found themselves unable to access or afford quality health care were classified as “cost desperate” for the purposes of the report.

The percentage of adults who could be considered cost desperate increased across age ranges, though to varying degrees. Among those 65 and older the rate rose by 1 percentage point between 2021 and 2024, reaching 4 percent, while it climbed 3 points to 11 percent among those aged 50 to 64 and 4 points to 14 percent among those younger than 50.

At the same time, the proportion of adults who could be classified as “cost secure” — defined as individuals who have “access to quality, affordable care and can pay for needed care and medicine” by Gallup and West Health — reached its lowest level. Only half of adults qualified for this category.

Across demographics, the percentage of Hispanic adults considered to be cost secure fell the most, going from 51 percent to 34 percent. Among Black adults, the percentage of those who were cost secure fell by 13 percentage points down to 41 percent. The percentage of white adults in 2024 who were cost secure remained the same when compared to 2021.

Gallup stated these findings are further indication of an increasing disparity in quality health care access across racial and ethnic groups.

“The erosion of cost security in healthcare comes with serious practical implications for the American public,” the Gallup report stated. “Recent research from West Health and Gallup shows that 12% of U.S. adults report borrowing money to pay for healthcare last year, amounting to an estimated $74 billion borrowed, and nearly 60% of U.S. adults report feeling ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ concerned about going into debt due to a major medical event.”

The report comes as Republicans in Congress are eyeing likely cuts to Medicaid to pay for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. Medicaid covers roughly a fifth of Americans, and if federal funding is cut, states are unlikely to be able to make up the difference, as health policy research group KFF noted last month.

from PFF, Ranking the NFL’s most productive rookie classes from 2024: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-ranking-most-productive-rookie-classes-2024?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dhtwitter&utm_content=null

1. Los Angeles Rams

Snaps Played: 7,649
PFF WAR: 0.68

Jared Verse, the Rams’ first first-round pick in eight years paid off right away, slotting sixth in PFF overall grade among qualified edge rushers en route to winning Defensive Rookie of the Year. Beyond Verse, Los Angeles set a strong defensive foundation with Braden Fiske (59 pressures), Kam Kinchens (73.7 PFF coverage grade) and Omar Speights (77.6 PFF run-defense grade), all of whom project to start again in 2025. Offensively, Jordan Whittington (78.9 PFF receiving grade) and Beaux Limmer (1,040 snaps) offered supplementary contributions.

from https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2025/4/1/24397979/rams-2025-draft-needs-les-snead

Once the draft gets past picks 20, the value between the 20th overall pick and the 60th overall pick are generally seen as the same.

As noted by ESPN’s Matt Miller,

“There are four, maybe five, blue-chip players,” one NFL general manager said. “After that, it’s 40 guys with a late-first-round or second-round grade.” Scouts view the 2025 class as light on future All-Pros but strong on starters. “You’re going to see a ton of rookie starters from this class because it’s such an experienced group,” an AFC South area scout said. Though the class appears to lack high-end, can’t-miss prospects seen as future stars it has fewer players ranked high based purely on potential. As an AFC East area scout put it: “Player No. 15 on your board might have the same grade as No. 50.”

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
The last time the Rams had back-to-back 1st round picks in consecutive years? Todd Gurley and Jared Goff.

Les Snead was on the @heykayadams show yesterday and hinted at trading back into the pick 33-36 range (early round 2). Seems like the most likely outcome.

InvaderRam wrote:

zn wrote:

This means Rams have about $18 mil in cap space and it will not go up June 1st…

how much of that goes to rookies?

About 10 M?

We don’t really know their cap yet though because we don’t know Stafford’s contract numbers yet.

Plus they’re working on extending Kyren.

…

Lance Zierlein@LanceZierlein
I just finished my mock 3.0 … and I can safely say that since the 2015 draft, this might be the toughest year to piece together where players could go. Very wide variances for some players.

from https://ramblinfan.com/2-nfl-experts-dissect-rams-draft-needs-and-project-rams-draft-strategy-01jqhn49ybqw

ESPN NFL Analyst Mina Kimes and former PFF NFL analyst Sam Monson will dip and weave throughout their draft analysis of every NFL team….

Perhaps one of the earliest takeaways from their analysis is the fact that they view the Rams ‘needs’ as limited to an inside linebacker (to pair with starting ILB Omar Speights) and a cornerback. They also mention some choices the team could address in the draft at tight end, quarterback, and offensive tackle,

Sam Monson chimes in with the oxymoron nature of the Rams drafting an inside linebacker. The Rams have been viewed as a team in need of an inside linebacker in almost every season led by HC Sean McVay. The only linebacker drafted by the team was former South Carolina ILB prospect Ernest Jones IV, who competed for the Rams for three of his first four seasons.

wv wrote:

Martz was a figurehead; I’ve always said it.

w
v

And Linehan should have been more appreciated.

Pete Prisco@PriscoCBS
This draft is loaded with players from No. 19-70 who will be good players. It only has a few sure-fire stars. Trading down makes sense.

from Poona Ford: Playing for Sean McVay was ‘a big part of my decision’ to sign with Rams — https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2025/03/28/nfl-free-agency-poona-ford-rams-sean-mcvay-signing-decision/82702585007/?taid=67e6a5c0b3e1fe0001533eea&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

One of the determining factors in his decision was McVay himself. Having seen the job McVay did with the Rams over the years, Ford knew he wanted to play for him. Ford got that chance in free agency, signing a three-year, $27.6 million contract with the Rams this offseason.

“The coaching staff is phenomenal,” Ford said, via WTOC. “I’ve always been a fan of Coach McVay from my years in Seattle watching what he’s done over there and how he’s run his program. It’s been a big part of my decision.”

…

He could see himself playing for McVay at some point and seems excited to finally have that opportunity.

“I always watched him from a distance,” Ford said recently. “Being in Seattle, and playing against him twice a year, I always knew he was a guy that I could see myself playing for at some point.”