Rams GM's recent comments suggest team could look to draft a QB

With the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft a little over 24 hours away, it’s widely known which teams are in the market for a quarterback.

But after the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and the like grab their future franchise signal-callers, could the Los Angeles Rams invest a mid-to-late-round pick on a QB not named Young, Stroud, Levis and Richardson? General manager Les Snead's recent comments certainly indicate it’s a possibility.

“We’ve definitely been intentional about the second tier and those players that would probably be beyond the [top] four, even the fifth one now in Tennessee [Hendon Hooker] that’s talked about a lot going early, going before us, things like that,” Snead told reporters during Tuesday’s predraft news conference.

While Matthew Stafford is free to participate in voluntary offseason workouts without limitations following a spinal cord injury in 2022, many question if he can be as effective as he was pre-injury. Stafford just turned 35, and last year was the second time in the last four seasons that he didn’t play a full campaign.

Baker Mayfield filled in admirably in Stafford’s absence, but he’s now in Tampa Bay. L.A. doesn’t have another quarterback under contract for 2023, putting the Rams in the market for a backup QB who could possibly play this season if Stafford isn’t 100 percent.

Fortunately, head coach Sean McVay has an idea of what he’s potentially looking for should L.A. draft a quarterback.

“You’re always talking about decision making, the ability to be able to play on time with accuracy,” McVay said. “What does it look like in crunch time? What are those innate traits that you have in terms of how your personality can authentically come across? … The quarterback is where everything always starts, and there’s certain guys that are easier evals just because they might be doing certain things that you would ask, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll end up being a better player.”

Although they don’t have a pick in the first round, the Rams have 11 picks in Rounds 2 through 7. Should they fall in love with a player or fear they could lose “their guy” to another team, they have plenty of ammunition to move up.

Aside from the top five quarterbacks, the 2023 class has some solid Day 2 or 3 options including Stanford’s Tanner McKee, Houston’s Clayton Tune, Fresno State’s Jake Haener, Purdue’s Aidan O’Connell, BYU’s Jaren Hall and UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson. 

The Rams met with both O’Connell and Tune during the predraft process.