How the Rams Could Blow Up the Draft

Todd McShay joined the show to lay out how the top of the 2026 NFL Draft could break in ways no one is currently pricing in, and the scenario he floated out of Los Angeles was the one that raised eyebrows.

McShay's latest intel on the Jets at number two has flipped. After hearing for more than a week that New York was locked on edge rusher David Bailey, McShay now believes the lean is toward Abdul Carter Reese. The reasoning, he said, is pure risk management, which is exactly what the Jets' new front office should be built around. Bailey is the cleaner projection as a designated pass rusher, but the floor on Reese is a great off-ball linebacker who can rush, with a ceiling McShay compared in a conversion sense to Micah Parsons moving from off-ball to edge.

At number three with Arizona, McShay said some important voices in the building want Notre Dame running back Jeremiah Love. The other drumbeat he's hearing is that the Cardinals' top priority is to trade back, collect extra capital, and still land offensive tackle Francis Mauigoa or linebacker Tai Simpson at better value a few picks later.

That's where McShay dropped the scenario he hasn't heard anywhere else but believes makes football sense. The team he thinks could blow this thing up is the Rams. Los Angeles at 13 is staring at a class of wide receivers where McShay believes the Rams can get their type of player, a Dejon Stribbling or a Jeremiah Burnard, in the second round. That makes the 13th pick flexible. If Los Angeles wants to move up to three and give Arizona a 2027 pick plus capital for Love, it would be expensive, and McShay acknowledged the intra-division tax makes it even harder, but he noted the Rams have two terrific running backs already and the only way the math works is if they view this as an all-in year.

On the Saints, McShay heard they'd move up for an edge rusher, but not all the way to three. Five or six is the realistic target to get ahead of Washington. On the Cowboys, he pushed back on the Jerry Jones blockbuster narrative. Dallas hasn't moved up in the first three rounds since 2014. If anything, McShay thinks they're more likely to move back from 20 as a tackle run hits in the late first, with Pittsburgh at 21, Philadelphia at 23, the Chargers and Bears at 25, the 49ers at 27, and the Texans at 28 all potentially desperate for a blindside protector.

His final read: the real movement could come from Tampa at 15 or the Jets at 16, where Howie Roseman might look to jump ahead of Detroit at 17, since everyone in the building knows the Lions are taking a tackle.

McShay's frame on all of it was clean. Arizona wants ammunition. The Rams want impact. And the team that reads the board correctly the night before wins the weekend.