The Los Angeles Rams had some clear needs heading into the 2024 NFL Draft. The biggest need was along the defensive line because of Aaron Donald’s retirement and the Rams used most of their draft capital to address it.
Los Angeles spent four of their 10 draft picks on defensive lineman, including their first two picks on Jared Verse and Braden Fiske.
However, there was also the question at kicker as the Rams had the worst field-goal kicking unit in the league last season. This draft class happened to feature several talented kicker prospects, and Los Angeles wound up seeing Stanford standout Joshua Karty fall to them to No. 209.
Karty knew the Rams could be a landing spot and he revealed that he wanted them to draft him the entire way, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“This was a little bit of a roller coaster,” Karty said. “There’s a lot of a lot of quality in the kicker classes here with with me and Will (Reichard) and Cam (Little), and we just knew as soon as one of us was going, then the other teams will start to bite. I was hoping if another kicker went first, it wasn’t going to be the Rams and boy, I’m glad the Rams had the next pick. I’m super excited. I wanted to be here all along and get to stay California and get to be around.”
Karty also noted how much he enjoys living in Southern California, which is a big reason why he wanted L.A. to pick him:
“I wanted to stay on the West, I like LA,” Karty said. “Specifically, the stadium is amazing. Great conference for kicking. I think the best thing is the Rams are always good every year, and there’s a lot of young talent on the team and they’re only getting better. I just can’t wait to be a part of that and win championships.”
The Rams shuffled between kickers throughout the 2023 season, so having Karty will hopefully resolve that problem. Karty was one of the most accurate kickers in college and will get to turn around a special teams unit that’s burned the Rams before.
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