Reach or value? Where Rams' draft picks ranked on consensus big board
The Rams only drafted two players who were ranked in the top 150 of the consensus big board, but they got a great value with their final pick.
Every team in the NFL has its own big board for the NFL draft each year. We never get to see a team's rankings unless it somehow leaks on the internet, but everyone views prospects differently. A player ranked in the top 10 by one team might not even crack the top 25 for another.
Arif Hasan of Wide Left puts together a consensus big board each year, using prospect rankings from more than 100 different outlets and experts. It still doesn't tell us how teams viewed a specific prospect, but it gives us an idea of what experts thought of that player. With that in mind, it can be a fun exercise to compare where the Rams drafted a player to where he ranked on the consensus big board.
Did they get a good value with Ty Simpson? What about Keagen Trost? In this year's draft, the Rams only picked one player lower than where he was ranked on the big board: Tim Keenan III.
And it appears Keagen Trost was a major reach based on the consensus rankings. QB Ty Simpson, Alabama Draft pick: 13 Big board rank: 38 This was viewed as a reach based on the big board, as well as in the eyes of most experts and analysts. The majority of draft experts pegged Simpson as a late-first-round prospect or potentially even a second-rounder, but the Rams took him in the top half of Round 1.