{"id":847138,"date":"2026-04-01T13:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847138\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T13:23:15","slug":"rams-trade-back-pick-up-offensive-weapon-in-new-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847138\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams trade back, pick up offensive weapon in new mock draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> have never been shy about moving their first-round assets to secure veteran superstars. But as recently as this past year, the Rams opted to trade back instead of up in the NFL draft. That strategy will likely continue after general manager Les Snead recently noted<\/a> the Rams aren’t looking to get a higher pick.<\/p>\n

So, if trading back in the first round is on the table, FOX Sports’ Rob Rang<\/a> has an interesting idea in his new mock draft. In this fun exercise, in which Rang traded every first-round pick, the Rams moved back eight spots from No. 13 to No. 21 in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers. While Penn State offensive guard Vega Ioane went to the Steelers with the Rams’ original pick, L.A. took Indiana<\/a> receiver Omar Cooper Jr. at their new selection.<\/p>\n

Speaking of the offseason, the aggressive upgrades at cornerback make it clear that the Rams are all-in on another Super Bowl run, so a trade up might seem more likely than moving back. But with so much salary dedicated to some of their stars, GM Les Snead might be looking for young, cheap talent. While the Rams have seven picks to work with in this draft, four of them are between 207-252. Cooper could feast on the one-on-one matchups he\u2019d see with the Rams and replace the jet-sweep possibilities they lost with Tutu Atwell leaving in free agency.<\/p>\n

Cooper would be a tremendous complement in the passing game to Puka Nacua, Davante Adams and the cadre of tight ends at Matthew Stafford’s disposal. One NFL analyst already called Cooper<\/a> the “Ramsiest” receiver in the class, and he would fill out the pass-catching room nicely while also setting L.A. up for future success at the position.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

This past season alone, Cooper caught 69 passes for 937 yards and scored 13 touchdowns on top of three rushes for 74 yards with one touchdown. He had 115 receptions for 1,798 yard and five touchdowns in three seasons at Indiana.<\/p>\n

The Rams are fortunate in that they don’t have any clear needs anymore and can afford to trade back and still take a quality contributor. Cooper Jr. would be a great pick in and of himself, but adding draft capital is an added bonus.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: NFL mock draft: Rams trade back, pick up offensive weapon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams have never been shy about moving their first-round assets to secure veteran superstars. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[5430,7,875,3308,1014,58,2444,2611,32,4002,6,61529,57,1088,424,31777,7392],"class_list":["post-847138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-rams","tag-davante-adams","tag-football","tag-fox-sports","tag-les-snead","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesrams","tag-matthew-stafford","tag-mock-draft","tag-nfl","tag-omar-cooper-jr","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-puka-nacua","tag-rams","tag-rob-rang","tag-tutu-atwell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116329670685355142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}