Over the past few seasons, the Los Angeles Rams and general manager Les Snead have found a lot of success in the draft. Snead has found key contributors such as Puka Nacua, Byron Young, Jared Verse, and Kobie Turner among other players who have become core pieces to build around.
Snead’s ability to draft over the last few years has been a large reason for the Rams’ success. After losing key players like Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, and Cooper Kupp, drafting their replacements has helped the Rams as they retooled their roster.
Steve Palazzolo, formerly of PFF and currently with The 33rd Team, created his own production value metric that has the Rams as the best drafting team since 2021.
Another metric called Stick to the Model also has the Rams ranked first with a hit rate of nearly 64 percent with 18 percent of their picks becoming stars. Drafting players like Nacua and Verse have certainly helped that hit rate and star percentage.
When it comes to the draft, hit rates tend to ebb and flow. Prior to 2023, many would have suggested that Snead hadn’t drafted well. Between the 2019 and 2020 draft classes, only David Edwards, Nick Scott, and Jordan Fuller were bonafide “hits”. Players like Greg Gaines, Taylor Rapp, and Van Jefferson were certainly contributors, but Snead struggled during this time period. The same Stick to the Model analysis ranked the Rams 27th in drafting from 2018 until 2020.
Following a successful run in the draft over the past few years, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Snead go back the other way. In fact, we may already be seeing signs of it. The 2025 rookie draft class was underwhelming to say the least during its first season. Terrance Ferguson didn’t start carving a role until late in the year while Josaiah Stewart may have been the most impressive of the bunch as a third-round pick. Jarquez Hunter had a lot of expectations and didn’t contribute, and linebacker Chris Paul was touted as a draft steal before not even making the roster.
That’s not to say that those players can’t do more in year two, but the immediate returns were not what many would have expected. However, it’s still a good visualization of the ebbs and flows of the draft. Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider struggled in recent years. However, since 2022, they are the fourth-best drafting team in the NFL.
While Snead has certainly had his misses such as passing on Creed Humphrey or taking Logan Bruss, his drafting ability often gets taken for granted. It’s also worth mentioning that Snead did a lot of this desite having just one first-round pick. That would have been a death sentence for many general managers during a re-tool. Instead, Snead has made the Rams one of the top contenders in the NFC once again.
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