It’s hard not to like what the Rams did in the 2024 NFL draft, coming away with a 10-player class filled with immediate contributors and future starters. Jared Verse was a perfect selection in Round 1, while Braden Fiske, Blake Corum and Kamren Kinchens should all get meaningful snaps as rookies in 2024.
In addition to those four players, the Rams had six other selections on Day 3 of the draft and there’s a good chance at least a couple of those players will have key roles in Year 1. But who was their best sleeper pick?
If you ask Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, it was Washington State edge rusher Brennan Jackson, the team’s fifth-round pick.
The Rams hit an absolute home run with the selection of Florida State edge-rusher Jared Verse in the first round (their first first-round pick since 2016), but in Washington State’s Brennan Jackson with the 154th pick in the fifth round, they got another edge defender who was almost as productive last season at another major program. Last season, Jackson totaled nine sacks and 40 total pressures to Verse’s 11 sacks and 62 total pressures.
Jackson doesn’t necessarily have rare athleticism as an edge rusher, but he never gives up on a play and is always in pursuit of the football. That’s what helped him return three fumbles for touchdowns last season alone, including two in one game against Colorado.
Plus, he plays with great power on the edge, bull-rushing tackles into the quarterback to collapse the pocket or force him to step up into the defensive tackles.
Verse is going to get the majority of the snaps opposite Byron Young next season, but if there’s an injury or if Jackson stands out in training camp, he could very easily become a key rotational player in the Rams’ pass-rush group.