{"id":859131,"date":"2026-04-07T15:01:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859131\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T15:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T15:01:14","slug":"rams-mock-draft-makai-lemon-is-choice-by-l-a-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859131\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams mock draft: Makai Lemon is choice by L.A. insider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Peter Schrager of ESPN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/draft2026\/story\/_\/id\/48408193\/2026-nfl-mock-draft-peter-schrager-insider-intel-first-round-picks-predictions\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sent his first mock of the draft season out into the world<\/a>. He used context from his time at the NFL annual meetings to gather information from sources and inform his project first-round picks. Schrager is basing his selections off what he heard from teams and not necessarily personal evaluations or what he thinks is best.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">With that context in mind, who did the Los Angeles Rams land? What were their options at the time?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Two receivers came off the board before the Rams were on the clock at #13. The Chiefs took Jordyn Tyson at ninth overall. The Dolphins swiped Carnell Tate two picks before Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>#13 &#8211; Rams: Makai Lemon, WR, USC<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">Lemon fits with a lot of what the Rams do on offense. And taking the 2025 Biletnikoff Award winner would be a sign that the Rams are truly all-in to win in 2026, potentially Matthew Stafford\u2019s final season. But this pick would also have the long term in mind, with Davante Adams entering the final year of his deal and turning 34 in December.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">TE Kenyon Sadiq was selected by the Ravens at #14 following the Rams\u2019 pick. Omar Cooper went a few slots later to the Jets at 16 overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Schrager mentions that Los Angeles needs another receiver given Davante Adams\u2019 advanced age. Lemon certainly will help the team both short and long term and could be an immediate contributor. Still, the Rams need someone who can eventually replace Adams on the outside and this is not the best fit for Lemon overall. Tyson and Tate better fit this need; however, they were already off the board by the time the Rams were on the clock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The way this mock draft fell does not favor LA. There is a high probability that Tate is long gone and the Rams can only acquire him if they trade up. I\u2019d feel better about the Lemon pick if the team had its choice between Tyson and Lemon, and if they could decide that Tyson\u2019s injury history is too risky. They shouldn\u2019t be pigeonholed into picking the best available wide receiver, though the other options in the same range weren\u2019t exactly intriguing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It\u2019s a tough draft class to have the 13th pick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter Schrager of ESPN sent his first mock of the draft season out into the world. He used&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[7,1014,58,2619,16484,2444,2611,6,424],"class_list":{"0":"post-859131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-los-angeles","10":"tag-los-angeles-rams","11":"tag-los-angeles-rams-draft","12":"tag-los-angeles-rams-mock-drafts","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-losangelesrams","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-rams"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116364030034677647","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859131","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=859131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}