The Los Angeles Rams didn’t go on the clock in the 2022 draft until No. 104 overall after trading away their first- and second-round picks, so they were going to have a hard time finding an impactful rookie at the top of their class. They wound up taking offensive lineman Logan Bruss, but he never saw the field after tearing his ACL in the preseason.
As a whole, the Rams’ rookie class wasn’t very productive. They made eight picks total but only two of them played at least 150 snaps this season: Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick. Russ Yeast, Quentin Lake and Daniel Hardy also got some playing time, as did Kyren Williams and A.J. Arcuri, but none of them were particularly impactful.
And had it not been for injuries to starters and backups, many of the Rams’ rookies wouldn’t have played meaningful snaps at all.
ESPN enlisted the help of Football Outsiders and Sports Info Solutions to rank each rookie class by production this season and the Rams came in at No. 31, ahead of only the Carolina Panthers.
The Rams didn’t pick until the third round of last year’s draft and then saw that player, guard Logan Bruss, go down with an ACL tear in the preseason. Instead, their most active rookie was cornerback Cobie Durant, who started playing the nickel at midseason. Durant has allowed just 5.3 yards per target with three interceptions. Another cornerback, sixth-rounder Derion Kendrick, started early in the season but allowed a frightening 10.0 yards per target and eventually got benched. Safety Russ Yeast was active in the run game when he was on the field, but he wasn’t on the field very much, just 12% of defensive snaps in games he was active.
Among the players drafted by the Rams in 2022, several of them could have bigger roles next season. Durant and Kendrick could both be called upon as starters at cornerback, Yeast and Lake may have a chance to start with Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott hitting free agency, and Bruss should get another crack at a starting guard spot in 2023.
The Rams are desperate for pass-rush help so Hardy could help in that regard, but as a seventh-round prospect, he wasn’t exactly highly sought-after in the draft. That doesn’t mean he can’t be a situational player or future starter, though.
With the way the Rams’ roster is built, they need their younger players to step up and become starters – particularly those draft after the first two rounds. If that doesn’t happen, they could be in for another rough season in 2023.
