The draftniks are so locked in on the Rams picking a wide receiver with their first pick that they’re doing a great job of convincing me that the Rams are not going to pick a wide receiver. Whether it’s Makai Lemon, Jordyn Tyson, or somebody else who catches passes, it’s become an original idea jut to have L.A. going to any other position besides wide receiver.
(If it’s not WR, it’s CB, which could be totally reasonable but there ARE other positions that Les Snead could pick.)
The following statement is not necessarily a problem if the Rams do draft a wide receiver with their first pick, but it is a fact:
The last first-pick WR by the Rams who was not a disappointment was Torry Holt in 1999.
1999-2007
The Rams picked Holt sixth overall in 1999 and immediately won the Super Bowl. They picked Holt over a class that also had Champ Bailey, David Boston, Daunte Culpepper, and Chris McAlister still on the board. Clearly they made the right choice, although Bailey has made the Hall of Fame before Holt.
I’m just saying they could have picked Boston and nobody would have blinked an eye.
St. Louis’s next WR pick would be Milton Wynn in the fourth round in 2001. Then they drafted Eric Crouch in the THIRD round in 2002, still one of the worst picks of the century just because they spent a fairly valuable pick on a quarterback who they were trying to move to receiver and he never made the league.
The Rams did decently with Kevin Curtis and Shaun McDonald in 2003 (3rd-4th rounds), but they had their best seasons with other teams.
There was a sixth round pick on Dante Ridgeway in 2005 and a fifth round pick on Marques Hagans in 2006 and a seventh round pick on Derek Stanley in 2007.
2008-2011
The Rams made their highest WR pick since Holt by taking Donnie Avery with the 33rd overall pick. Avery wasn’t thrown into the ideal situation but either way he had two underwhelming years with the Rams and that was it.
Bill Devaney was hired by the Rams as the new GM in 2009 and oversaw the three darkest years in franchise history. St. Louis used four picks on receivers in those three years:
- 3rd round Austin Pettis
- 4th round Greg Salas
- 4th round Mardy Gilyard
- 5th round Brooks Foster
Pettis never hit 400 yards in a season in his career and he was by far the most successful out of this bunch.
2012-2016
This is the start of the Les Snead era to the end of the Jeff Fisher era. The duo immediately started by trying to rebuild and fortify those WR corps:
- 2012: Brian Quick, 2nd round
- 2012: Chris Givens, 4th round
- 2013: Tavon Austin, 1st round
- 2015: Bud Sasser, 6th round
- 2016: Pharoh Cooper, 4th round
- 2016: Mike Thomas, 6th round
Quick was the first pick of the second round, going ahead of Alshon Jeffery. He didn’t top 400 yards until 2016, when he had a career-high (and career-ending) 564.
Givens came out much hotter but burned out by his third season.
Then there’s the Tavon Austin of it all, a draft pick story that I know no Rams fan needs to hear again.
From Holt to today, Austin is the only other wide receiver who the Rams have DRAFTED in the first round. That’s 27 years since Holt. Yes, the Rams have traded first round picks for proven talent, but that’s not what we’re talking about today with regards to why L.A. needs to break a curse of drafting the wrong receiver with their first pick. Are the Rams going to trade a pick for a wide receiver? Then that’s a different story.
2017-2019
The Rams first pick in the Sean McVay era was Gerald Everett. But the second pick that year was Cooper Kupp in the third round.
Less memorable, but still a relatively good pick, was Josh Reynolds in the fourth round.
McVay got a major hit in the third round and then the Rams didn’t draft a wide receiver until three years later.
2020-2022
This is the era of regrettable second round decisions:
- 2020: Van Jefferson, 2nd round
- 2021: Tutu Atwell, 2nd round
- 2021: Ben Skowronek, 7th round
The Rams also spent a fourth round pick on Jacob Harris. Sort of almost an Eric Crouch-level projection “we think we can change him” pick.
These are the times since 1999 that the Rams used their first pick on a wide receiver:
- 1999, Holt
- 2013, Austin
- 2021, Atwell
2023-2025
With the 177th pick of the 2023 draft, the Rams got an even better receiver than Cooper Kupp.
Puka Nacua definitely makes up for pretty much all of that bad wide receiver picks of the Les Snead/McVay era. Since then, L.A. has also taken Jordan Whittington in the sixth and Konata Mumpfield in the seventh.
2026???
The Rams just hold three draft picks in the top-200. They probably aren’t getting a starting receiver in the sixth or seventh round. We don’t know for sure that L.A. will use one of their top three picks on a receiver, but Snead could also use the team’s first pick on a wide receiver.
The history of Snead’s later picks on wide receivers is still BETTER than his history of early picks used on wide receivers.
It does not mean that just because the Rams use their third pick on a wide receiver that he’s going to be as good as the prospects who were available at 13.
They could be—just like almost anything could happen—but the best prospects still go at the top of the draft.
It just so happens that the Rams early-ish WR picks since Holt have been disappointing. All of them. Any Rams receiver drafted higher than Kupp since 1999 has been a bust.
That’s just history though. What can the Rams do to improve their future?
Pick right.
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