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Los Angeles Rams Select UCLA Safety Quentin Lake in 6th Round of NFL Draft

Lake is staying close to home by joining the defending Super Bowl champions.

Sam Connon

Another member of the Lake family is turning pro, and he doesn’t have to go very far to do it.

The Los Angeles Rams selected UCLA football safety Quentin Lake with the No. 211 overall pick in the sixth round of the 2022 NFL Draft on Saturday. Lake is the fifth Bruin to come off the board, following in the footsteps of Denver Broncos tight end Greg Dulcich, Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Sean Rhyan, Los Angeles Chargers defensive lineman Otito Ogbonnia and Tennessee Titans wide receiver Kyle Philips.

Ogbonnia and Lake will both call SoFi Stadium home, despite being on different teams, located just a few miles down the I-405 from Westwood.

Lake is the first UCLA safety to get picked since 2011, when Rahim Moore went to the Broncos in the second round. He is the second member of his immediate family to get drafted, with his father Carnell going to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second round of the 1989 NFL Draft before making five Pro Bowls and five All-Pro teams.

The first time the younger Lake put his pro potential on display was his redshirt freshman season back in 2018, when he racked up 67 tackles, seven passes defended and two interceptions. Injuries hampered Lake in 2019, then COVID-19 protocols cost him some games in an otherwise productive 2020 with 33 tackles and five passes defended in just five appearances.

Lake got back on the field for 11 games in 2021, earning All-Pac-12 Second Team honors after recording 54 tackles, 2.0 tackles for loss, nine passes defended and three interceptions. Lake spun that redshirt season campaign into an appearance at the East-West Shrine Bowl, which he used to help him cement himself on teams' draft boards the same way his father did at the same showcase back in 1989.

The 6-foot-1, 201-pound defensive back ran his 40-yard dash in 4.59 seconds and did 13 reps on the bench press at the NFL Scouting Combine in March.

The reigning Super Bowl champion Rams are currently three-deep at both safety positions, but have had late-round picks ascend through the depth chart in recent seasons. Just last year, sixth-round pick safety Jordan Fuller led Los Angeles with 113 tackles before suffering a season-ending ankle injury that kept him out of the playoffs.

Lake was the 16th safety to hear his name called in Las Vegas this weekend but the first out of the Pac-12.

READ ALL BRUINS' NFL DRAFT PROFILE ON QUENTIN LAKE

Safety Qwuantrezz Knight, running back Brittain Brown and offensive tackle Alec Anderson are the highest UCLA products remaining on the board, with several others left in the pool as well.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.

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