Los Angeles Rams

Welcome back to Muffed. The Los Angeles Rams' 2026 draft class comes with a real headline: five picks — the lowest haul this front office has carried in years — and they spent the thirteenth overall on a quarterback. Ty Simpson out of Alabama is the succession plan and the frame of the entire class. Around him: a tight end in the second, an offensive lineman in the third, a receiver and a defensive tackle on day three. The theme is unmistakable — offense-first, future-facing, layered onto a roster that already runs deep. Les Snead said it plainly: no glaring needs, best player available, with one eye on the next two or three years.

Start with Simpson, because the entire class orbits him. He threw for 3,567 yards and 28 touchdowns against just 5 picks — second in the SEC in yards, fifteenth nationally, second in the conference in touchdowns. His predicted points added, the college equivalent of NFL expected points added, came in at plus zero point three two per play and plus 177.97 on the season, with 93 rushing yards and two scores tacked on. And here's the kicker: the Rams' 2025 passing game already produced plus 141.38 in total passing expected points added and 46 touchdowns through the air. This isn't a panic pick. It's a runway pick. The front office traced Simpson back to July at the Manning Passing Academy, and what kept surfacing was the intelligence piece — a quarterback who can sit in Sean McVay's system and process one-two-three reads with backside throws built in. The tape they kept circling was the Auburn game: 130 yards under heavy pressure, clutch throws in a messy environment. The tell from the press conference? They openly admitted they don't know if it's one year, two, or three before he plays. They picked him anyway. When you find the fit, you take him.

The second-round pick reinforces what this offense is becoming. Max Klare, tight end from Ohio State, posted a plus zero point four four predicted points added per play on 43 catches for 448 yards and 2 scores — and that efficiency number is the headline, because plus zero point four four per play is elite-route-runner territory. Nicole Blake spoke directly to it: the move to thirteen personnel — one back, three tight ends — happened organically last season, and the Rams expect to keep activating multiple tight ends in pass situations. Klare played across personnel groupings at both Purdue and Ohio State, so the formation projection is already on tape. In a draft that set a record for tight ends taken on day two, Los Angeles landed one of the most efficient route-runners in the class.

The receiver came later, but the front office tipped its hand. Sixth round, pick 197, CJ Daniels out of Miami — and the Rams traded up roughly ten spots to get him. His Relative Athletic Score, a zero-to-ten grade benchmarking combine and pro-day testing against every player at the position since 1987, came in at 6.30. Solidly average athletically. But his seven receiving touchdowns ranked second in his conference, and a team area scout had been calling Daniels a Ram since September. Strong hands, high catch rate, sharp routes. That's the profile they paid up for.

On the offensive line, the Rams used pick 93 on Keagen Trost from Missouri — a twenty-five-year-old developmental piece for a unit that allowed just 23 sacks in 2025 and generated plus 141 in passing expected points added. They weren't drafting for a fire. They were drafting for the succession logic Snead laid out: contracts coming up after this season, bodies you believe in two and three years out.

Then the lone defensive pick: Tim Keenan III, defensive tackle from Alabama, seventh round, pick 232. The 2025 Rams run defense held opponents to minus 17.57 in rushing expected points added allowed and just 8 rushing scores all year — so this isn't an emergency fix, it's a flier. Keenan's college line: 16 tackles, 3 for loss, 2 sacks. His Relative Athletic Score came in at 2.74 — genuinely below the bar, bottom-tier testing for the position. A late-round body for the rotation. Nothing more.

Pick of the draft has to be Simpson, and the case isn't that he was the most polished name on the board — it's that he's the rarest. You can argue Klare on pure per-play efficiency. You can argue the value bump on Daniels in round six. But quarterback in McVay's system isn't plug-and-play, and the Rams said the building had collective buy-in on Simpson in a way that rarely happens at the position. Fifteen career starts is a thin sample, and the front office acknowledged people weigh that differently. They didn't. Drafting a top-fifteen quarterback while your incumbent is still playing at a high level is the ultimate long-game move, and getting that decision right dwarfs anything else in this class.

The biggest thing to watch in 2026: this class is built almost entirely on offense, layered onto a unit that already produced plus 141 in passing expected points added and 46 touchdowns through the air last year. The stress test isn't whether Simpson plays right away — it's whether the defense, which got exactly one seventh-round dart, holds up while the offense gets younger and deeper at the skill spots. Los Angeles bet on continuity on defense and runway on offense. If Simpson is the guy, this class ages into one of the most important drafts of the McVay era. If he's not, it's a lot of weight on a tight end and a sixth-round receiver.