What will the L.A. Rams do in the 2024 NFL Draft and could they trade down, potentially all the way to the last pick of the first round? Anything is possible with Les Snead. I was going to do a showdown between a CBS mock draft by Tom Fornelli and an NFL.com mock draft by Chad Reuter, but they both had the Rams picking the same player: Illinois defensive tackle Jer’Zhan “Johnny” Newton. There was one key difference though.

Reuter had the Rams trading down 13 spots and still getting Newton after letting the Kansas City Chiefs come up for a receiver.

(The Chiefs have not put ANY emphasis on drafting receivers in the past, I don’t necessarily know why they’re going to change that strategy now, but this is about the Rams.)

In his mock draft, NFL.com’s Reuter has the Chiefs trading up to select speedy Texas WR Xavier Worthy with the 19th overall pick. Reuter has the Rams getting picks 32 and 64, which I’m sure Snead would love if that were actually something on the table. I’ll be very surprised if Kansas City is willing to trade its first and second round pick to come up for Worthy in a deep WR class.

Reuter then has the Rams picking Newton:

General manager Les Snead stated on The Season with Peter Schrager podcast that there’s no one ”on the planet” like Aaron Donald, who retired last week. No one expects Newton — or anyone else — to replace Donald. The Illinois product just needs to be his disruptive self. And don’t be surprised if the Rams trade out Round 1, making it eight straight years without a first-round pick for the franchise.

In the second round of Reuter’s four-round draft, he has L.A. picking safety Javon Bullard out of Georgia and linebacker Trevin Wallace from Kentucky. That would give the defense-needy Rams three picks on that side of the ball in the first two rounds: DT Johnny Newton, S Javon Bullard, and LB Trevin Wallace.

Many Rams fans would be happy with an emphasis on defense this year.

In the third round, Reuter has the Rams picking edge Jalyx Hunt from Houston Christian and kicker Cam Little out of Arkansas.

PRO-DAY UPDATE: Want to know which small-school sleeper is trending to be top sub-FBS prospect drafted this year?

It's Houston Christian OLB Jalyx Hunt.@jalyx_hunt had his pro-day today and position coaches from
7 teams (HOU, MIN, NYJ, NYG, CIN, NO and PHI) were there to… pic.twitter.com/z5uAgWyJj9

— Jim Nagy (@JimNagy_SB) March 22, 2024

In his CBS mock, Fornelli had similar reasons for picking Newton, but he couldn’t fantasize a made-up trade like Reuter:

With Aaron Donald’s retirement, the Rams suddenly find themselves with a massive hole in the interior of their defensive line. Newton is not Aaron Donald, but they share similar traits. Both are undersized, disruptive interior linemen with strong and violent hands.

Clearly fans would prefer the one with Newton and a second round pick than one without, but is Johnny Newton the player you’d like the Rams to pick in the first? Let us know in the comments and your thoughts on Reuter’s all-D/ST picks.