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Les Snead and the Los Angeles Rams certainly has a type for defensive prospects.
Five of the Rams’ most recent defensive draft picks transferred from smaller schools to bigger schools before being picked by L.A. Josaiah Stewart was the most recent one, as he started at Coastal Carolina before going to Michigan for the past two seasons.
The others include Jared Verse (Albany to Florida State), Braden Fiske (Western Michigan to Florida State), Kobie Turner (Richmond to Wake Forest) and Byron Young (Georgia Military College to Tennessee).
This pattern wasn’t lost on Snead, who explained on ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show that the Rams target men who “want” to play football more than just going to a big program. So for the Rams, it meant more when they found players who begin their careers at smaller schools before transferring (and succeeding) at bigger schools.
“Every one of those defensive linemen, even the young man we drafted from Michigan the other night, Josaiah Stewart, they all started at, let’s call it a ‘less level of football,'” Snead said. “They all loved [football] enough that they didn’t go to the Power 5s.”
Sūmner Sports’ Sam Bruchhaus’ noticed this trend as well and added that he thinks part of the Rams’ draft strategy is identifying players that have an upward track based on their ability to play at any level of competition.
“They love transfer-up defensive linemen that have excellent production and excellent analytical traits,” he said. “They seem to believe if a defensive lineman who exhibits good to great athletic traits can go from a lower level and go to a Power 5 level and have success at the same exact degree, they seem to think that will track at an NFL level.”
That idea has worked out well for the Rams in recent years. Verse won Rookie of the Year in 2024, Fiske tallied 8.5 sacks as a rookie, Young has 15.5 in two season and Turner has 17 in two seasons. That’s elite production so early in four players’ careers.
Now, the Rams have drafted defensive players who didn’t fall into this category in recent years. Ty Hamilton, the Rams’ fifth-round pick in 2025, played his entire career at Ohio State. Tyler Davis, who was drafted in 2024, played five years at Clemson.
But, for the players drafted within the first three rounds, this mentality has applied in each of the past three drafts. The hope is that Stewart can follow in those footsteps.
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