Don’t look now, but the Los Angeles Rams might end the 2025 season with a top-10 draft pick.
With the Atlanta Falcons floundering, the first-round pick they traded to the Rams continues to get better and better. Right now, the selection is inside the top-10, meaning Rams general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay could get a shot at one of the top players in the 2026 NFL Draft.
The Draft Network’s Keith Sanchez took a stab at a first-round mock draft with a new draft order in mind. The Rams picked No. 8 and No. 31 in this mock and took two trench players with the team’s two selections: Texas A&M edge rusher Cashius Howell and Oregon offensive tackle Isaiah World.
The Los Angeles Rams have hit on their draft picks, especially in the trenches, with players like Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, Byron Young, and Jared Verse. But as the old saying goes, don’t let good be the enemy of great. That means the Rams should swing for the fences and add yet another talented edge rusher to this group who has the potential to be one of the best in the NFL. Cashius Howell is a physically dominant player with the potential to be a double-digit sack player year in and year out.
The Rams are a good football team and have a chance to win the Super Bowl this year because of Matthew Stafford and the offensive weapons they have. The area of this offense that has needed improvement for a few years is the offensive line. Oregon OT Isaiah World could be immediately inserted into the lineup and make an impact in the trenches for the Rams.
World makes sense at the end of the first. The Rams need to ensure their offensive line is sound for the foreseeable future, and World could potentially start Week 1 over the aging Rob Havenstein.
Howell is a bold top-10 pick for a Rams squad that doesn’t need pass rushers. As Sanchez wrote, they already have Fiske, Verse and Young, and also added Josaiah Stewart in the third round in the 2025 draft. Howell, though, is a 6-foot-4, 220-pound menace. He leads the SEC with 11.5 sacks two years after he led the MAC with 9.5 sacks. Howell’s also defended 13 balls in two seasons.
Picking Howell could be about adding more edge rushers to an impressive stable. It could also be a sign that the Rams aren’t planning to keep all their young talent for the long haul. Young and defensive tackle Turner are up for contract extensions this offseason and could earn sizable deals. While drafting Howell doesn’t preclude Snead from re-signing Young and Turner, it does give the team insurance at the position if one or both walk when their deals are up after the 2026 season.