The Rams built the foundation of their roster through the draft, complementing homegrown talent with outside additions such as Jalen Ramsey, Matthew Stafford, Leonard Floyd and Andrew Whitworth.
Some of their top draft picks in recent memory include Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp, Todd Gurley, Michael Brockers and Rob Havenstein, but according to ESPN’s numbers, the Rams haven’t gotten much value out of the draft since 2012.
ESPN ranked every team based on Career Approximate Value Over Expected (CAVOE), which measures the performance of every player “against a value based on where that player was taken in the NFL draft.”
The Rams ranked 20th on the list, with a CAVOE of -26.5, which was weighed down by their shockingly poor -48.4 CAVOE on Day 3 (31st in NFL).
They’ve nailed some picks over the years, including Donald, Havenstein, Kupp, Jared Goff, Sebastian Joseph-Day and David Edwards, but their misses early in Les Snead’s tenure were costly. Brian Quick, Tavon Austin and Greg Robinson all had CAVOE of -25.0 or worse. Since 2016, the Rams’ worst pick in CAVOE each year was -4.5 or better.
Joseph-Day was recognized as the Rams’ best steal on Day 3, while the 2017 class was hailed as the team’s best in the last 10 years. That class included Cooper Kupp, Gerald Everett, John Johnson, Josh Reynolds and Samson Ebukam, all of whom went on to sign second contracts with either the Rams (Kupp) or elsewhere.