You know that a draft class is loaded with intriguing quarterback and skill position prospects when there are potentially elite offensive tackles falling outside of the top-10 picks. In most mock projections for the 2024 draft class, fans are getting a taste of how an elite tackle class could wind up giving franchises in the late-teens and even the 20s multiple opportunities to protect the quarterback with offensive tackle prospects who would go in the top-10 in some past years.
Such has been the case with a trio of Pac-12 Defunct West Coast Gone offensive tackles, including Washington’s Troy Fautanu, who was mocked to the L.A. Rams at 19 in the latest mock draft by That Franchise Guy on YouTube. If you haven’t heard of That Franchise Guy that’s…probably normal…and I don’t like to only cover mocks by Mel Kiper, as I think some of the smartest draft people have some of the lowest follower counts
(who is a free agent) and Havenstein (who could be released or traded at age 33) and probably won’t still be working with Noteboom. There will come a time of reckoning at the tackle positions in 2025, one way or another, so the idea to draft a tackle in the first round is not a strange one.
And this class is probably the much better opportunity to do it than in the 2025 draft.
That’s not to say that the L.A. Rams SHOULD draft an offensive tackle in the first round, as there are also plenty of other needs and positions they could fill and most likely Les Snead will and should go with the absolute best player on his board regardless of position, but if they do decide to pick Fautanu or another tackle, there’s plenty of sense to it.
