Los Angeles Rams mock draft: Rams trade down, rack up two extra picks
By Jason Reed
Round 5, pick 3: Stanford Samuels, CB, Florida State
The Los Angeles Rams do not have a fifth-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, so with the Lions selection, the team can add depth to a position that is not a direct need next season but could use the help.
With no other position group jumping off the board with this selection, the Rams turn to cornerback and get a potentially exciting prospect in Stanford Samuels. Samuels is someone who is going to have an impact in certain packages right away, and with NFL coaching, could round out his game entirely into a starter.
Samuels is quick and has a tall and slender frame that makes him the perfect candidate to bring in nickel and dime packages. He can cover a variety of receivers in the open field and showed great instincts and the ability to jump other routes by reading the quarterback.
Of course, quarterbacks are not as easy to read in the NFL so Samuels may not have as much success right away in the NFL in that regard, but he can certainly hold his own and will not be a liability on the defensive side of the ball, in passing downs.
The one massive hole in his game is that he is almost unusable on running downs. His slim size and below average open-field tackling would make him a liability against the run, something that he would need to improve at the NFL level to become an every-down starter.