The Rams have spent extensive time with Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart during the pre-draft process, according to Pat Leonard.
Leonard adds there are league sources who think Dart is a viable option for Los Angeles in the first round with the No. 26 overall pick.
Dart has seemingly gained momentum over the course of the pre-draft process and it’s possible he ends up going in the first round of the draft.
He’s taken official visits with the Browns, Raiders and Steelers, plus had a bevy of private workouts and meetings with other teams, including the Giants and Saints.
The Rams are in an interesting position, as they’re year-to-year with current starting QB Matthew Stafford who was allowed to explore his trade market this offseason before returning to Los Angeles.
The team doesn’t do official 30 visits but they have been linked to a few different quarterbacks now, including Dart. It would make some sense for them to draft a younger option to have a potential alternative to Stafford in the building.
Yet both Rams GM Les Snead and HC Sean McVay have downplayed the chances of them drafting a passer. McVay claimed he hasn’t watched a lot of tape on this quarterback class yet.
“I think that’s unlikely. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t done a whole lot of work on the quarterbacks,” McVay said, via Jacksonville Jaguars on SI. “I feel really good about where our quarterback room is, even though we’re not naïve to the fact that Matthew’s hopefully got a couple more years that he wants to play but he’s also earned the right to say, ‘After this year, I’m going to go ahead and hang them up.’ But I’m hopeful that’s not the case, but I haven’t done enough work to really have an educated opinion on that. That’s not something I would see us going – but maybe not, huh?”
Both men also admitted this is exactly the kind of thing they would say if they were trying to throw other teams off their scent.
“And then to be honest about the dishonesty, if we were really looking at a QB at No. 26, we would probably say an answer like that,” Snead said.
Dart, 21, was a four-star recruit ranked as the No. 2 player in Utah and the No. 13 overall QB in the 2021 recruiting class. He committed to USC in December 2020 and spent one year there before entering the transfer portal.
Dart was a four-star transfer and was ranked as the No. 3 quarterback in the portal in the 2022 offseason. He committed to Ole Miss and spent the next three seasons as a Rebel.
In his collegiate career, Dart appeared in 45 games over four seasons and completed 65.2 percent of his passes for 11,970 yards, 81 touchdowns and 27 interceptions. He also rushed 393 times for 1,541 yards and 14 touchdowns.
We’ll have more on Dart as the news is available.
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