In the NFL Draft, the Los Angeles Rams must be thinking Big.
After winning the Super Bowl in 2022, the Rams struggled with injuries this past season and went 5-12. They need young talent to compliment the Core Four (Kupp, Ramsey, Stafford & Donald) and help in multiple spots.
The good news is the Rams have a lot of picks, starting with No. 37 overall, which is early in the second round. The Rams first-round pick belongs to the Lions for the Stafford deal. The NFL Draft starts Thursday, April 27 through April 29 in Kansas City.
You can get a quality NFL player at No. 37. I’m going to stay with my belief that the Rams biggest need is offensive linemen, so let’s meet BYU offensive tackle Blake Freeland, who would be a good fit for the Rams at 37.
Meet Blake Freeland
Let’s start with the size. Freeland measured in at 6-foot-8, 305 pounds at the Senior Bowl. That’s an NFL body.
He is from Herriman, Utah. His father James played linebacker for the Cougars. Freeland’s mom Debbie played basketball and volleyball there. His sister runs track at BYU. (Green flag – good athletic genes).
Freeland was a high school state champ in track, throwing the javelin, shot put and discus (Green flag). He also played basketball in high school.
On the football field, he was a quarterback and tight end. BYU switched him to offensive line (small red flag, because limited experience).
The BYU Days
Freeland was inserted in the starting lineup at right tackle as a freshman and appeared in seven games allowing one sack (remember, OL stats are all fake, how do they know he was supposed to block the guy who got the sack?).
As a sophomore, he again played 11 games at right tackle. BYU switched him to left tackle as a junior and he started 13 games. Last year he started 12. (Green flag – never got hurt).
One other stat you won’t find is, well, was BYU any good? Because I always like the Rams to take players from winning teams. The answer is yes. BYU played in four bowl games while Freeland was there and went 36-15.
Freeland was invited to the Senior Bowl and did fine. I know NFL teams pay a lot of attention to those games with good reason.
Scouting The Scouts
Doing NFL Mock Drafts and watching tape on college football players is a religion for some folks. God bless them. But some of the stuff is hard to read.
Please, tell me what this means, it’s from a scouting report on Freeland:
“Freeland proactively uses his high-end length to cage off defenders and keep his torso clean, and he can quickly re-load and re-exert to maintain separation.”
Translation: He hits the man in front of him and then hits him again. I proactively like to eat breakfast. What a word salad.
Playing offensive line isn’t that hard.
Mel Kiper Jr. has Freeland listed as the No. 5 offensive tackle in the Draft, and just on the outside of the first round. His stock has risen since the college football season has ended, which means that the more the scouts watch Freeland on film, the more they like him.
I read three different scouting reports on Freeland. They all say the same thing. They love his size. He’s strong (well, duh) and is a good athlete.
The knocks are he’s a little raw as a pass protector and can get beat by speed off the edge. I love it, is there an NFL offensive lineman who can’t get beat every now and then? The D linemen can play too, you know.
How Blake Freeland Fits The Rams
A couple of things stand out. One is the fact that Freeland is a West Coast kid. I think that matters for the Rams when they make their selection.
The second is Freeland has played a lot of football for BYU. The Rams don’t need a project with pick No. 37, they need a guy who can come in and play now. The Rams are a team built to win now.
And finally, the fact that the Rams need offensive linemen, period. They lost Andrew Whitworth to retirement after Super Bowl LVI and rolled with Joseph Noteboom to replace him. Noteboom popped his Achilles tendon in Week 6 this season and missed the rest of the year.
I like Noteboom a lot, but he’s a big man, and that’s a lot of stress on an Achilles tendon. I don’t know that the Rams can count on him coming back.
One other knock I saw on Freeland was he might not be a “scheme fit” for some teams. I’m not sure what the heck that’s supposed to mean. Every NFL team runs a lot of the same stuff. It’s a quick passing league. The Rams offense is based on Stafford finding receivers (like Kupp) in open spaces.
They use motion and stacked WR sets to create gaps in the secondary. The Rams aren’t about to shift to a power running game, which may not be Freeland’s game. They need a powerful, big, young offensive lineman like Freeland to step in and play.
