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theramswire.usatoday.com] How have Rams historically fared the season after a draft with no first-round pick?
Cameron DaSilva
April 27, 2022 5:24 am PT
Sean McVay has been the head coach of the Los Angeles Rams for five full seasons. He’s never made a first-round pick, and he won’t until 2024 – and only if Les Snead doesn’t trade their first-rounder two years from now for another star.
This isn’t to say the Rams’ strategy is bad. Quite the opposite. They turned their aggressive approach into a Super Bowl ring in February, thanks to the help of players acquired in blockbuster trades: Matthew Stafford, Jalen Ramsey, Von Miller.
This year will be the 13th draft in which the Rams don’t have a first-round pick. However, as Andrew Siciliano notes, in the year following a draft without a first-rounder, the Rams won at least 10 games eight of the 12 times.
The eight seasons in which the Rams won 10-plus games after not having a first-round pick were 1967, 1968, 1973, 1984, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. So as you can see, half of them came in the last five years with McVay at the helm.
In five of those seasons, the Rams won the NFC West (1967, 1973, 2017, 2018 and 2021). Again, being without a first-round pick hasn’t bothered this franchise in the least bit, especially in the five years since McVay was hired.
They fully expect to win 10-plus games again next season after going without a first-round pick this year, though it won’t be easy with their brutal schedule that features the Bills, Broncos, Cowboys, Packers, Chiefs, Chargers and Bucs – as well as the three NFC West teams.
