There’s a less than 1% chance the Los Angeles Rams will be able to find a player who has the same impact as Aaron Donald in this year’s draft. Heck, it’s possible that no team will ever draft another defensive tackle like him again because he was “truly one-of-one,” as Sean McVay put it.
But that doesn’t mean the Rams shouldn’t try to find a player who can help replace Donald on the interior of the defensive line. In fact, they need to do exactly that because right now, Kobie Turner is the only sure thing at defensive tackle for Los Angeles.
Mel Kiper Jr. released his latest mock draft on Tuesday and he has the Rams addressing the void left by Donald in Round 1. He projects them to select Texas defensive tackle Byron Murphy II at No. 19 overall, landing the top interior defensive lineman in the draft.
Here’s what Kiper wrote about the selection for Los Angeles:
I didn’t have defensive tackle on my list of needs for the Rams ahead of free agency, but that all changed Friday. Aaron Donald announced his retirement, and the future Hall of Famer leaves a giant hole to fill. L.A. got great play from rookie front-seven defenders Byron Young and Kobie Turner last season, but it has to upgrade its talent level on that side of the ball. I see this pick as either a defensive lineman or a cornerback.
Murphy is the best interior pass-rusher in this class, and at 6-foot-1, 297 pounds, he has a similar build to Donald. I’m not saying he will became a perennially All-Pro, but he has intriguing tools at the position. He had five sacks and created 33 pressures last season. This match makes a lot of sense. The Rams haven’t picked in Round 1 since 2016, so we can never rule out a trade down, either.
When you have Donald on your team, defensive tackle is pretty low on the list of needs. However, with Donald gone, that position flies to the top of the list because of how impactful No. 99 was and how many one-on-one opportunities he created for the Rams’ other pass rushers.
As Kiper mentioned, Murphy is the best interior pass rusher in the class despite being a bit on the smaller side like Donald was. He’s 6-foot and 297 pounds, which is a half-inch shorter and 15 pounds heavier than Donald weighed at the combine in 2014. He also has 32-inch arms, the same as Donald. NFL.com’s comparison for Murphy is Ed Oliver, who was sometimes compared to Donald when he was coming out of Houston.
Last season at Texas, Murphy had five sacks, 8.5 tackles for a loss and 29 total tackles, all of which were career-highs. And while those may not be eye-popping numbers, his best football is probably ahead of him.