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Rams take edge rusher in Matt Miller’s latest two-round mock draft

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Rams take LSU pass rusher in ESPN Matt Miller’s latest mock draft

We are officially knee deep into mock draft season! However, it’s not very often that the media experts will go through two full rounds. This is problematic with Les Snead’s “F them picks” mantra when it comes to the first round for the Los Angeles Rams. Every so often though, one of the experts will go all the way to end of the second round. That was the case in ESPN’s latest mock draft by Matt Miller.

Miller, formerly of Bleacher Report, released a two-round mock draft this week following the Senior Bowl and he has the Rams taking LSU edge rusher BJ Ojulari. Here’s what Miller had to say about the pick.

“Positional value comes into play here, and with no left tackle of value on the board, the front office pivots to pass-rusher. Ojulari (6-3, 250 pounds) had 12.5 sacks the past two seasons while playing off the edge of the LSU defense and wearing the famed No. 18 jersey awarded to a team leader.”

An edge rusher would make a lot of sense for the Rams with the 36th overall pick as they were never able to fill the void left by Von Miller last offseason. The team cut Justin Hollins and Terrell Lewis in the middle of the season and replaced them with Michael Hoecht.

The concern with Ojulari is his lack of size, but he has natural athleticism, college production and leadership qualities that will be attractive to Rams brass.

It’s worth noting that Miller didn’t have Kansas State edge rusher, Felix Anudike-Uzomah selected at all in his mock draft. Anudike-Uzomah is someone who has been frequently mocked to the Rams. Will McDonald IV also went 41st overall to the Tennessee Titans.

In terms of offensive linemen, Minnesota center John Michael Schmitz went to the Pittsburgh Steelers with the 32nd overall pick and North Dakota State’s Cody Mauch snuck into the first round.

In this scenario laid out by Miller, a trade back might be the best scenario for the Rams so that they can move back into some of the tackles and get better pick value.

Syracuse’s Matthew Bergeron went 46th to the New England Patriots and Jaelyn Duncan from Maryland went 50th to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If the Rams traded back into this range, they could get better value for that third tier of tackles in this draft.

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