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These metrics say that the Rams had a top-10 most valuable draft class
The Los Angeles Rams had 10 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft and certainly made the most of them. With holes on defense, five of the team’s first six draft picks were used on that side of the ball. General manager Les Snead then found good value on day three with players like Beaux Limmer and Josh Karty.
With the 2023 draft class of Steve Avila, Byron Young, Kobie Turner, and Puka Nacua setting a good foundation, it was important for the Rams to once again nail the 2024 class. The Rams will be looking to make at least one final push with quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp. A solid 2024 draft class and that could come as early as 2025 as this group of players develops and matures.
While we won't know how this class performs until they hit the field, things are pointing in the right direction. According to a few different metrics, the Rams had one of the most valuable draft classes in the NFL over the weekend.
Warren Sharp uses a metric called Draft Capital Over Expectation. With this methodology, Sharp incorporates consensus mock drafts from Ben Robinson and consensus big boards assembled by Arif Hasan to measure expected capital used on a prospect vs. the actual capital used. Says Sharp,
“Assigning draft capital to each pick using those sources, we can compare the total draft capital used to draft a player at a particular point in the draft relative to what was expected...Based on this methodology, we can determine which teams reached the most to draft a player and which teams were able to get great value on players drafted later than expected.”
Using Sharp’s metric, the Rams had the 10th best draft class in the NFL, coming in at -0.26 DCOE. The Rams 99th overall pick Kamren Kinchens was considered one of the best values in the third round with a DCOE of -1.242. Kinchens was expected to be taken at pick 84 and was taken at pick 99.
Again, one of the Rams’ most valuable picks was Kinchens, but on day three, Ty Davis came out favorably and Beaux Limmer may have been one of the most valuable selections of the draft. The Rams took Limmer in the sixth round in the sixth round with the 217th overall pick. On the consensus big board, Limmer was the 122nd ranked player. Limmer was also considered one of the most valuable picks by ESPN Draft Analyst Matt Miller.
Of course, this metric is mostly created by those ranking the players on their personal big boards and these aren’t coming from how the team’s had these individual players graded. Still, we can assume that the Rams got good value with these picks. Now, we will wait until they perform on the field to see how these draft classes shake out. Again, things are pointed up for the Rams.
Jason...
