Turf Show Times
Tim Keenan III joined future Los Angeles Rams teammate Ty Simpson as a captain for the Alabama Crimson Tide during his senior year.
His road to becoming a team captain was difficult, but it ultimately led him to the Rams. Keenan was L.A.’s final pick in the 2026 NFL draft, going in the seventh round with the No. 232 overall pick.
While his path to playing time in his rookie season is uncertain so far, everything he has accomplished in his football career has prepared him for the ups and downs of life in the pros.
All the signs that Keenan would be a Los Angeles Ram date back to his high school days.
For one, Keenan was a member of the Ramsay High School Rams in Birmingham, Alabama.
According to AL.com, Keenan had 50 tackles, which included 10 tackles for loss and five sacks as a sophomore and 43 tackles with 21 tackles for loss and eight sacks as a junior. Even during his injury-shortened senior season, where he missed Ramsay’s runner-up finish in the 2023 Alabama 5A Region, he still racked up 22 tackles, including six tackles for loss and four sacks.
Despite his success at Ramsay, some scouts felt he had plenty of work to do during his time in college. Barton Simmons of 247Sports wrote the following high school evaluation of Keenan in March 2020, months before he committed to the University of Alabama:
“Appears to play with good effort for a bigger lineman. Commands attention on the interior. Sees through blockers to the football. Lack of length allows blockers to get into his body. Short area burst doesn’t flash. Very limited in terms of scheme and position. More development and conditioning could unveil a much more explosive athlete. Currently an early down defensive lineman at the Power Five level that needs college development to tap into NFL upside.”
At that stage, Simmons also projected Keenan to become an undrafted free agent by the time he declared for the NFL draft. Nonetheless, then-Ramsay coach Rueben Nelson praised Keenan in a December 2020 article for AL.com, saying at the time that he “rules the middle of the field.”
“If you look at our games this year, he dominated against those bigger programs and maybe against some more talented teams. He went out and anchored the middle of the field.
But when Tim came in here, he was really ahead of everybody as far as training. His parents provided him with so much training before he was just ahead of the curve. He’s continued to improve and you could just tell from Day 1 that he was going to be a big-time recruit.”
Playing in Tuscaloosa meant staying closer to home, which was something Keenan preferred. He was especially intrigued by the Crimson Tide’s ability to produce NFL-caliber players at his position, citing Quinnen Williams and Daron Payne as successful transitions to the pros.
Those players served...
