For the first time since the 2014 NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams will have two picks in the first round. Back in 2014, the Rams held the second and 13th overall selections, taking Greg Robinson and Aaron Donald. In this year’s draft, the Rams’ highest pick will be where they made their second pick in 2014 before selecting 29th overall.
There’s no questioning that having two first-round picks is important. The Rams just made the NFC Championship game and will have an opportunity to add two first-round talents to the roster. At the same time, the Rams will have a much better chance to do so at pick 13 than pick 29.
At the end of the day, the 29th overall pick is essentially a second-round pick with a fifth-year option attached to it. The 29th overall pick becomes valuable if used on a quarterback or wide receiver where the option salary is significantly lower than a market-rate contract extension. That’s when the 29th overall pick becomes most valuable. In reality, the Rams will likely be looking to trade down into the early part of the second round as there isn’t much of a difference in terms of talent between pick 29 and pick 40.
This is exactly what the Rams will need to balance. How much value does pick 29 actually have in terms of benefitting the 2026 team? The Rams are in win-now mode in which they are looking to capitalize on the last year of the current window with Matthew Stafford at quarterback. A player at pick 13 can certainly make an immediate impact in a similar way that Jared Verse did as a rookie and top-20 pick. That player will still go through the usual growing pains of adjusting to the NFL, but that’s still a first-round caliber player.
In a given draft, there are roughly 15 players with ‘first-round grades’. ESPN’s Matt Miller recently put out a list of the players that he’s scouted who have first round grades. Miller gave out only 11 first-round grades for the 2026 class which is the lowest that he’s ever awarded.
Using Miller’s grades, there’s a chance that the Rams are already selecting a second-round player at 13th overall. Of course, just because Miller has only 11 first-round grades doesn’t mean that’s the case for every team. However, it speaks to how thin this draft is at the top and there certainly aren’t 29.
Again, the Rams will very likely be looking to move out of the 29th overall pick if they can. If they do move back, it’s worth wondering how much of an impact that player will have immediately and be able to contribute on a roster looking to win a Super Bowl next season.
As we saw last season, the Rams traded out of the 25th overall back to pick 46 to select tight end Terrance Ferguson. Ferguson certainly has a lot of upside, but as a rookie he only had 11 receptions for 231 yards. Ferguson didn’t play more than 20 offensive snaps until Week 7 and spent Weeks 3 and 4 inactive. For the first month of the season, a majority of Ferguson’s snaps came on special teams.
That’s not a knock on Ferguson, but it also paints a realistic picture of the type of impact that the 29th overall pick will have. That’s a player with more of a three-year vision than someone who will come in and start immediately. This is a draft that works in the Rams’ favor in that it’s good at the top at cornerback. Still, the impact that player has as a rookie will be minimal. At best they are getting a CB2 in year one.
While Miller qualifies that Jermod McCoy and Mansoor Delane could work their way into a first-round grade by April, they aren’t there yet. Both have CB1 upside, but they aren’t going to be that on day one. This isn’t a draft with a Sauce Gardner type cornerback at the top of the first round.
This is what the Rams will need to weigh with the 29th overall pick. Is it better to keep that pick and have that fifth-year option? Or is it more valuable to trade out of it and potentially add more draft picks to add depth to the roster? Out of those two options, how much of an impact will the player have on a roster that’s looking to win a Super Bowl?
Those questions being asked are exactly why trading away the 29th overall pick altogether might make the most sense. ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently suggested a trade that would send Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie to the Rams. In that trade, the Rams would receive McDuffie and a fifth-round pick and then send a first-round pick in return. Said Barnwell,
“The Rams have two first-round picks after trading down in last year’s draft, and having come bitterly close to making it back to the Super Bowl this past season, GM Les Snead has to be thinking about what he can do to get his organization over the top. Matthew Stafford just turned 38, and though he’s coming off an MVP campaign, the Rams don’t know when their veteran quarterback will call it quits. Loading up to try to build a title-winner while Stafford is still slinging makes sense.”
McDuffie is the type of player that would make sense in a trade for the Rams. He’s only 25 years old and at a premium position of need. He’s a two-time All-Pro and has four years of experience, he has the ability to make an impact immediately where a rookie may not be able to. Adding McDuffie wouldn’t mortgage the future in the same way the Jalen Ramsey or Matthew Stafford trade did. The Rams would still have a first-round pick this year and wouldn’t be giving up future draft selections.
This also isn’t exclusive to McDuffie. If there is another trade for an experienced player that the Rams see could benefit them, that makes more sense in the realm of the current team built than picking at 29 or trading back. That’s the type of move that the Rams should be looking at when it comes to the 29th overall pick.
That’s not to say that the Rams can’t find a Day 1 starter or an impact player at 29th overall. However, that’s a spot that the Rams may just trade down at anyway and as seen last year with Ferguson, that player likely isn’t making an immediate impact. If the Rams were able to draft Caleb Down, Sonny Styles, or Delane at 13 and then also trade for McDuffie that would give them a future piece to build around while also filling an immediate need with an experienced player.
The Rams are in a win-now window with an opportunity to go all-in and capitalize one final time with Stafford at quarterback. While having two first-round picks is nice, if the Rams are to capitalize on this window, trading pick 29 for an experienced player might be the best path forward.