ESPN’s latest mock draft has the Rams focusing heavily on defense with their early picks, bringing in another Ivy League alumnus to pair with Brown-educated Michael Hoecht, and taking a late-round risk on a talented but troubled former five-star recruit.
ESPN’s Predictions for the Rams’ 11 Picks in the 2024 NFL Draft
Here are the selections ESPN forecasts for the Rams:
- First Round (No. 19) — Edge Jared Verse, Florida State
- Second Round (No. 52) — S Calen Bullock, USC
- Third Round (No. 83) – – DT Ruke Orhorhoro, Clemson
- Third Round (No. 99) — OT Kiran Amegadjie, Yale
- Fifth Round (No. 154) — CB Jarvis Brownlee, Jr., Louisville
- Fifth Round (No. 155) — RB Dillon Johnson, Washington
- Sixth Round (No. 196) — WR Cornelius Johnson, Michigan
- Sixth Round (No.209) — TE Erick All, Iowa
- Sixth Round (No. 213) — LB Eyabi Okie, Charlotte
- Sixth Round (No. 217) — P Tory Taylor, Iowa
- Seventh Round (No. 254) — K Harrison Mevis, Missouri
Assessing ESPN’s Proposed Picks for the Rams
With Aaron Donald sailing off into the sunset, it certainly makes sense for the Rams to focus on defense in the draft. Thus, ESPN appears to be on the mark in forecasting that the team’s first three picks will be defensive selections.
Also noteworthy is ESPN’s prediction that the Rams will “stay smart” by adding another Ivy League graduate to their roster. (Current Rams linebacker Michael Hoecht is a graduate of Brown.) Similarly intriguing is the projection of the world’s leading multiplatform sports entertainment brand that the Rams will take a flyer on an extremely talented defensive player (a five-star recruit out of high school) who struggled mightily with off-field issues during his collegiate playing career.
Let’s delve into ESPN’s prognostications:
1. Jared Verse
23-year-old Jared Verse played the 2022 and 2023 college football seasons at Florida State, and in both years, he was a first-team All-American. He had nine sacks in both seasons.
Verse is 6’4″ and weighs 260 lbs.
Mel Kiper rates Verse as the 23rd-best overall prospect in the draft and the best defensive end.
Bleacher Report gives the following assessment of Verse:
“Part of what makes Verse such a coveted prospect is his blend of strength and athleticism. He can put offensive tackles on their heels with his ability to turn speed to power as a pass-rusher, and he has good use of hands paired with the bend to win around the edge using finesse moves like a cross chop or arm over.
“The Seminole is also a plus run defender with his physicality at the point of attack and ability to get off blocks. He has pop in his hands to stand up offensive linemen at the line of scrimmage and gain a leverage advantage, making him hard to move one-on-one and [difficult to] block with tight ends.”
2. Calen Bullock
According to Rams Wire:
“Bullock would pair nicely with Kamren Curl, one of the Rams’ new starting safeties. He’s capable of playing deep, which helps in situations where the Rams want to play Curl closer to the line of scrimmage. He showed great ball skills in college, too, picking off nine passes in three seasons, including five in 2022 alone.”
Bullock hails from Pasadena, CA. Undoubtedly, the USC Trojan standout would enjoy joining the Rams and staying in the Los Angeles area.
3. Ruke Orhorhoro
Bleacher Report provides a unique scouting report on Orhorhoro:
“Orhorhoro fits the description of a high-ceiling NFL draft prospect to a T. His combination of strength and athleticism is evident on film, and he’s still relatively new to the game having grown up in Nigeria before moving to Michigan. He was primarily a basketball player before hitting the gridiron for the first time as a junior in high school.
“Against the run, Orhorhoro only has a few flaws in his game. He takes on blocks with good leverage and has the upper-body strength to not only gain control of the block but also snap the heads back of offensive linemen. Also, his agility allows him to avoid getting reached.”
4. Kiran Amegadjie
This is where ESPN has the Rams staying smart by bringing a second Ivy League graduate into the fold, with the 99th overall pick in the third round.
As noted above, Michael Hoecht, who has worked his way into a starting role on the Rams defense, is a graduate of Brown University.
Amergadjie is a Yale graduate.
The Athletic describes Amergadjie as the person who might be “the most interesting” prospect in the 2024 NFL Draft.
777 Score reports:
“Hailing from just outside Chicago, Kiran Amegadjie is a 22-year-old rising star in the NFL Draft scene, balancing Ivy League football and academics with ease….
“Despite his parents’ emphasis on education over sports, Amegadjie’s passion for football never wavered. Born to a Togolese father and Cameroonian mother, he found his way to the gridiron after initially pursuing basketball.”
On March 26, 2024, Bleacher Report published the following scouting report on Amegadjie:
“Kiran Amegadjie is a three-year starter inside Yale’s RPO-heavy, run-first (60-40 run-pass split), zone-based scheme with gap principles mixed in. Amegadjie has a muscular, lean and well-rounded build with ideal arm length, wingspan and good athletic ability.
“Amegadjie excels as a run-blocker, creating lateral displacement on angle-drive, down and double-team feed blocks with very good pad level and initial power. He works off the first to the second level with good burst and agility to intersect smaller targets, and he utilizes his tremendous reach to widen them out and secure rush lanes….
“Overall, Amegadjie is a proportionately built, long and easy mover on film. He has an NFL-starter look….”
5. Jarvis Brownlee, Jr.
Bleacher Report provides the following scouting report on Brownlee:
“Jarvis Brownlee Jr. is a scrappy defender with multiple seasons of starting experience. Brownlee started at cornerback for Florida State in 2021 before transferring to Louisville in 2022. He has shown the ability to play both outside and as a slot defender.
“Brownlee lacks the ideal length and size to be an outside cornerback, but he has the aggressiveness and tenacity to compete. Best as a zone defender, he does a great job of playing with leverage and route recognition. His vision and awareness are his top skill sets, which help him play the quarterback’s eyes and react to the ball in air.
“Brownlee does a very good job of showing off his lateral movement in press coverage, where he is quick to get in position and uses his hands to control and make it difficult for receivers to work downfield.
6. Dillon Johnson
After transferring to Washington from Mississippi State, Johnson rushed for over 1,100 yards for the Huskies in the 2023 season.
NFL analyst Lance Zierlein, of NFL.com, offers the following assessment of Johnson:
“Well-built, rugged runner who relies on vision and physicality to move the chains. Johnson wears down defenses with contact balance and provides quality short-yardage value. His burst and short-area quickness fall below average for the NFL level, so he’s unlikely to be an elusive inside runner or be able to stretch run games from sideline to sideline. Johnson has proven he can handle a heavier workload but is more likely to project as a grinder who can take on backup reps, short-yardage carries and third-down snaps.”
Rams Wire likes the idea of selecting Johnson as a backup to running back Kyren Williams:
“At 6 feet tall and 217 pounds, Johnson would be a nice complement to Kyren Williams as a between-the-tackles runner who’s physical and plays through contact. The Rams could use a short-yardage back to take some of the wear and tear off of Williams and Johnson could fill that role.”
7. Cornelius Johnson
Here is NFL.com’s scouting report concerning Michigan Wolverine wide receiver Cornelius Johnson:
“Johnson was a three-year starter, with all three seasons including action in the College Football Playoff. He’s a big, tough target who displayed improvement making the difficult catch in 2023. He has decent speed but is encumbered by ragged route running that fails to hit the mark with footwork or timing. Johnson’s play strength and competitiveness can become a problem for smaller cornerbacks when the action heads down the field. He’s a chippy run blocker with the potential to become a weapon as a perimeter blocker. Johnson’s size and traits will be lauded, but he might need a simpler route tree to be at his best as a pro backup.”
8. Erick All
After playing for the Michigan Wolverines, All transferred to Iowa, where as a fifth-year senior in 2023, he played seven games and had 21 catches for 299 yards for an average of 14.2 yards per catch. He had three touchdown receptions. He boasted an excellent quarterback rating of 119.6 when targeted. In pass protection, he gave up one pressure and no sacks.
All is a tight end who is 6’4″ and weighs 252 lbs.
9. Eyabi Okie
This is a very interesting possible sixth-round selection — with potential upside and potential risk.
Okie, who was formerly known as Eyabi Anoma, was a five-star recruit out of high school. (He changed his surname from “Anoma” to “Okie” in order to recognize his mother who lives in Africa.) In the 2018 recruiting class, he was rated the No. 3 overall prospect in the country, behind only Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields.
Okie began his collegiate career at Alabama. He was “the top-rated player in Alabama’s 2018 recruiting class….”
So, why on earth is he projected as a sixth-round draft pick?
He was one of the Crimson Tide’s top pass rushers. However, he had off-the-field issues, including irregular attendance of classes, that ultimately led to his dismissal from the team. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban stated — with typical brevity:
“The guy was dismissed from school and that’s really all I can say about it.”
Throughout his long and troubled college career, Okie transferred repeatedly, playing for five different college teams — Alabama, Houston, UT Martin, Michigan, and Charlotte. Just as he was dismissed from Alabama, he was dismissed from Houston due to off-field issues.
Per the Draft Network:
“Eyabi Okie-Anoma brings legitimate NFL-level talent to the edge rusher position. He has enough first-step explosiveness needed to attack the outside shoulder of offensive tackles, opening room for his power moves. He possesses an effective speed-to-power bull rush to drive blockers deep into the backfield and disrupt the quarterback’s comfort zone. He has a nice pop in his hands when converting speed-to-power. This can be troublesome for IOL on twists and stunts where Okie-Anoma can run through their chest into the face of the QB.
“Okie-Anoma has the power to take advantage of technically poor blockers. He will get his hands underneath their pads and forklift/uproot them from the turf in both run and pass games. He has the quickness to slice and slip through lanes and across blockers’ faces as a backside run defender. On run actions like split flow/zone and stretch/wide zones, he will slip reach blocks and chase plays down from behind.
“As physically gifted and talented as Okie-Anoma is, the lack of maturity plagued him as a collegiate player. He transferred to a handful of different schools during his career. This has limited his developmental growth as a pure pass rusher.”
10. Tory Taylor
Taylor, who is from Melbourne Australia, won the Ray Guy Award as the nation’s best punter in 2023. He was also a unanimous first-team All-American.
He is a big punter. He is 6-foot-4 and weighs 232 pounds.
Iowa’s website touts Taylor’s canon of a leg.
Despite the foregoing, Rams Wire is not thrilled with this ESPN’s projection of the Rams drafting Taylor in the sixth round:
“It’s really hard to imagine the Rams drafting a punter for the second straight year after taking Ethan Evans last year. Evans has a massive leg and should maintain his job as the Rams’ primary punter.”
11. Harrison Mevis
The Rams had serious struggles with placekicking throughout the 2023 season, missing 16 field goals and extra points, more than any other team in the league. According to Sports Illustrated, one of the Rams’ biggest needs for the 2024 season is a reliable place kicker. Thus, the Rams may go after a placekicker at some point in the draft.
However, NFL.com is not all that hot on Harrison Mevis as a place-kicking prospect:
“Mevis was one of the hottest kickers in college football in the 2021 season but has failed to reach th[e] [same] accuracy standards [he achieved in that year]. While he holds the SEC record for longest field goal make at 61 yards, his stroke and ball flight are inconsistent from distance. Mevis has solid accuracy over the course of his career but is below the preferred 90 percent mark on kicks under 40 yards over the last couple of years. He might not be a reliable kickoff option, which — paired with his average 2023 season — might make it tough for him to find an NFL home.”
Although Rams Wire notes that the Rams need a place kicker, Rams Wire shares NFL.com’s reservations about Mevis, noting that he “showed a lot of inconsistency in college.”
Perhaps a better option would be Cam Little from Arkansas, who both Mel Kiper, Jr. and fellow ESPN draft analyst, Jordan Reid, rate as the top place-kicking prospect.
A different mock draft by Turf Show Times has Cam Little going to LA in the sixth round.
Little is the No. 1 kicker in Mel Kiper's 2024 NFL Draft rankings. https://t.co/1HzQwXMwgq
— Mason Choate (@ChoateMason) December 1, 2023
Placekickers are rarely selected early in the draft. Only five have been selected in the first round. Thus, if history holds true to form, LA will likely wait until one of the later rounds before making a move to secure a new kicker.
Stay tuned to Gridiron Heroics for continuing reporting on the Rams and the team’s 2024 draft prospects.
For more related sports news, focused primarily on the USC Trojans, SMU Mustangs, and Los Angeles Rams, please follow me at @vshjah_Victor.