Rams May Have Found Another Draft Steal On Offense

Did Les Snead strike again?

May 28, 2024; Thousand Oaks, CA, USA; Les Snead, General Manager of the Los Angeles Rams, look on during OTAs at the team training facility at California Lutheran University. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Since assuming the Los Angeles Rams' general manager gig in 2012, Les Snead has enjoyed a storied run in building out not one but two Super Bowl-caliber squads. He's done this by making savvy trades and free agent signings, sure, but he's also proven himself to be quite adept at maximizing his draft picks, perhaps the most cost-efficient way to flesh out the margins of a 53-man standard roster.

Now, L.A.'s longtime top decisionmaker may have stumbled upon (or, more likely, very tactical scouted and assessed) another diamond in the rough.

Per Quinn MacLean of Sumer Sports, new Los Angeles rookie Jordan Whittington numbers among the top 10 best collegiate route runners selected in the entirety of April's 2024 NFL Draft. His 3.20 route versatility ranking is listed as the eighth best among the class. Los Angeles selected Whittington with the No. 213 overall pick in the sixth round this year.

"Our main assumption of this entire analysis is that uncertainty about what routes a player will run can be translated to an interpretation about a receiver’s versatility," MacLean writes about the group, headlined by New York Giants Wan'Dale Robinson's 3.38 rating. "We observed what the players were asked to do, which in part can be dictated by a player’s scheme (as seen by the number of Alabama receivers with higher versatility). We also are missing context around a player’s capabilities, which we infer based on the routes they are asked to run. We believe that given minimal correlation in offensive personnel usage to route running entropy that the scheme likely has a small part to play in the unpredictability for all receivers outside of their ability."

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