2026 NFL Draft Team Needs & Predictions: Rams

This is where contenders live.

Picks 29 through 32 belong to the final four teams on the board — organizations that didn’t just compete, but controlled the season. The Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks all won at least 12 games and enter 2026 with expectations of doing it again.

The mindset here is different.

There are no panic moves. No desperate reaches. No foundational rebuilds.

This is about sustainability.

Championship windows close faster than teams expect. Veterans age. Coordinators get poached. Depth gets tested. Contracts escalate. And the teams drafting at the end of Round 1 must balance two timelines:

Win now — and win later.

Do you reinforce a strength that carried you to 14 wins?
Do you patch the one weakness exposed in January?
Do you draft a successor before the roster demands it?

These are luxury picks — but they’re also strategic ones.

Late-first selections are often about long-term cap health, premium position succession plans, and maintaining a competitive edge in a conference that’s always hunting the top seed.

In this batch, we break down:

The biggest roster holes for each franchise
Contract situations and future cap implications
Which positions should be prioritized for veterans and rookies
Potential fantasy football implications

These teams aren’t chasing relevance.

They’re protecting it.

Wrapping up the team needs series with: the Los Angeles Rams, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, and Seattle Seahawks.

Salary cap contract information provided by Spotrac.

Pick 29: Los Angeles Rams

2026 Free Agents

QB: Jimmy Garoppolo
RB: Ronnie Rivers
WR: Tutu Atwell, Xavier Smith (ERFA)
TE: Tyler Higbee, Nick Vannett
OL: LT D.J. Humphries, RT David Quessenberry, G Justin Dedich (ERFA)
EDGE: Keir Thomas (RFA), Nick Hampton (RFA)
LB: Troy Reeder
CB: Roger McCreary, Ahkello Witherspoon, Decobie Durant, Derion Kendrick
S: Kamren Curl
ST: Jake McQuaide, Harrison Mevis (ERFA)

2027 Free Agents

QB: Matthew Stafford, Stetson Bennett
WR: Davante Adams, Puka Nacua
TE: Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen
OL: G Kevin Dotson, C Coleman Shelton, G Steve Avila, RT Warren McClendon Jr.
EDGE: Byron Young
DL: Kobie Turner, Desjuan Johnson
LB: Omar Speights (RFA)
CB: Darious Williams, Emmanuel Forbes (CLUB), Josh Wallace (RFA)
S: Jaylen McCollough (RFA)
ST: Ethan Evans

Team Needs: OT, CB, WR, QB, DT

Matthew Stafford is going to return to the Rams for 2026, but it remains to be seen how many years he has left. LA has been rumored to be in the backup/development QB market, given that Jimmy Garoppolo will be a free agent.

A veteran name to watch? Zach Wilson. Played under the current Rams QB coach in New York.

Second-year tight end Terrance Ferguson will be a stud and possesses an extremely high ceiling. Tyler Higbee is an impending FA. Davante Adams is getting older and is a dark-horse potential salary cap cut candidate despite the Rams wanting him to return next season.

Nobody else is behind Puka Nacua in the Rams pecking order (neither Adams nor Nacua is under contract for 2027). We could very much see the Rams’ young TE make a major leap in 2026. His 20.8 yards per reception led all TEs in 2025, along with an extremely high average depth of target (17.6).

Per Next Gen Stats…Ferguson averaged 17.6 air yards per target this season, the most among players at his position with at least 25 targets by more than six full yards.

Ferguson was targeted on 12 of his 37 deep routes (32.4%), the highest rate among tight ends to run at least 15 such routes. He hauled in five deep targets for 144 yards and two touchdowns, good for the second-most deep receiving yards by a tight end.

The list of TEs that rank highly in yards/receptions and ADOT over the past several seasons includes: George Kittle, Kyle Pitts, and Juwan Johnson.

RT Rob Havenstein is retiring from the NFL after 11 seasons. Two more of the Rams’ depth tackles are also free agents. Then the entire interior OL is hitting FA in 2027. They won’t lose all of those IOL guys, but they might not be able to re-sign all three.

On defense, the obvious need is in the secondary at CB. That was the Rams’ Achilles heel in 2025. It’s a unit that just needs to improve overall.

Safety Kamren Curl is also an impending free agent (led team in defensive snaps in 2025).

The Rams’ two big 2027 defensive free agents are EDGE Byron Young and DT Kobie Turner (both 2023 3rd-round picks).

But with this team in full-blown “win now” mode, I’m not sure they have to use high-end draft capital on either DT/EDGE unless it’s BPA. Would probably lean toward DT…as I don’t think they will let Young walk after a career 2025 campaign.

They already paid DT Poona Ford last offseason.

The Rams have two first-round picks (Nos. 13 and 29, thanks to Atlanta). Therefore, it would make sense for them to just grab the most immediate impactful players (or player).

The Rams have some notable coaching changes this offseason, including the promotion of Nathan Scheelhaase to OC. Spent time in college at Iowa State. Former Commanders OC Kliff Kingsbury was also brought in as assistant HC. Former Rams WR Robert Woods was also brought in as an assistant WR coach.