Could Jared Verse eventually be first Rams player to get 5th year option since Goff?

A tale of 2 Jareds, as Rams go eight years between first round picks

The well-documented history and non-history of the L.A. Rams and first round picks got a new data point last week when the team finally picked a player on day one, selecting Jared Verse eight years after Jared Goff. Thursday is the deadline for teams to make decisions on fifth-year options for players drafted in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, but of course the Rams won’t have any news on that front for obvious reasons.

In fact, the last time the Rams had to make a fifth-year option decision at all was also with Goff, when L.A. exercised his option in 2019 for obvious reasons: He had just been to the Super Bowl. That didn’t last long though, as the Rams signed Goff to a four-year, $134 million extension only a few months later.

Goff is the most recent player before Verse to get picked by the Rams in the first round, but the team narrowly dodged a decision on a fifth-year option in 2017 when Les Snead traded for receiver Sammy Watkins. The Bills picked Watkins fourth overall in the 2014 draft and then declined his fifth-year option in 2017, just a couple of months before trading him to L.A. for with a sixth round pick for E.J. Gaines and a second round pick.

Watkins was seemingly on track for a fifth-year option in his first two seasons, but injuries and inconsistency came to the surface in 2016 prior to Buffalo deciding to trade him for whatever they could get.

First round picks are the only players who come with fifth-year options, therefore the Rams don’t have to think about this decision very often. There was Goff in 2019, but despite adding some former first round picks since then none of them were in the first three years of their deals. Austin Corbett was the closest, but he was the first pick of the second round when the Browns drafted him a year before trading him to L.A..

Last season’s roster had only three former first round picks total: Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford, and eventually Carson Wentz. That’s it. The team added a former first round pick in free agency this year when they signed cornerback Tre’Davious White, another player drafted by the Bills. He’s obviously well past his fifth-year option decision.

Despite L.A.’s lack of history with fifth-year options since Goff, the Rams made a lot of them in the first half of the 2010s and actually only declined one of eight options over the period of time per OvertheCap.com.

The Panthers and Chargers lead the league in most fifth year options picked up with 9. The Rams have been infamous for not having a 1st round pick from 2017 to the present, but before then they often had multiple first round picks, and did well in picking players they deemed worthy of the fifth year option.

The Rams declined the fifth-year option on Greg Robinson, then traded him to the Lions for a sixth round pick.

A decision on Verse, if there even is one because you never know if a player could be traded or extended before that decision date, won’t come until 2027. This is obviously early to talk about it at all, but you’ll have to take that up with the front office that hasn’t made any first round picks since Jared Goff. Maybe Verse will, maybe he won’t, but he’ll definitely be the most-watched Rams first round pick in eight years. Guaranteed.