Brandin Cooks

Rams happy to sit out first round after trading for Cooks

Published Apr. 27, 2018 12:13 a.m. ET

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) The Los Angeles Rams will continue to wait on Day 2 of the NFL draft before making their first selection.

Barring a trade Friday, the Rams' first pick will not come until the 23rd selection in the third round, the 87th overall pick. The Rams traded their first-round pick, the 23rd overall selection, to New England for wide receiver Brandin Cooks earlier this month. The Rams included their second-round pick as part of a trade with Buffalo for wide receiver Sammy Watkins in August.

Reduced to spectators during the first round Thursday, general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay showed clips of Cooks in action when the Patriots were on the clock. Cooks had at least 1,000 yards receiving and seven touchdown catches in each of the past three seasons.

''It looked good,'' Snead said. ''You know what, there were some oohs and aahs because we probably sorted it descending by longest plays. Obviously, a lot of highlights in the first few minutes of that tape.''

The Rams have three fourth-round picks to use if they want to move up to address their most glaring needs at linebacker. Starting outside linebacker Robert Quinn was traded to Miami in March, and free agent Connor Barwin remains unsigned. Quinn and Barwin combined for 13.5 sacks last season. Starting inside linebacker Alec Ogletree was traded to the Giants in March after leading the Rams with 95 tackles last season.

Safety and offensive line are also areas the Rams will look to upgrade over the next two days. The Rams started the same five offensive linemen for 15 of 16 regular-season games and their wild-card round loss to Atlanta, but left tackle Andrew Whitworth is 36 and center John Sullivan is 32.

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Brandin Cooks

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