Reports are that the Los Angeles Rams were interested in drafting De’Zhaun Stribling during the 2026 NFL Draft, but Stribling was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second-round well before the Rams had a chance to take him.
Some critics say that the 49ers reached for Stribling. Maybe. Odds are that the 49ers took Stribling before another team could, so if it was a reach, it was a risk the 49ers were willing to take to get their guy. I think that’s good management, in theory. Get who you want.
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Now, we’ll see if they can make the pick work, but I don’t doubt the 49ers will be able to incorporate Stribling as long as he stays healthy, we’ll see. This topic may be worth a re-visit later.
Either way, the Rams took a receiver in CJ Daniels later in the draft, and some have high hopes for him. The Rams likely do which is why they took him.
Always interesting to hear reports like this after the draft and seeing what teams actually thought or wanted during their respective drafts. Of course, we don’t know that all of these reports are facts, per se, but interesting nonetheless.
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“According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Rams were one of the teams that “had eyes” on Ole Miss receiver De’Zhaun Stribling. But before L.A. could land the receiver (their next pick after No. 13 was at No. 61) , the San Francisco 49ers swooped in to secure Stribling at No. 33.
“There were a couple of teams that I spoke to leading up to the draft that felt like that De’Zhaun Stribling was the best wide receiver in the draft. Another team, supposedly the Los Angeles Rams had eyes on him as well,” Schefter said this week. “The 49ers didn’t just come up with this pick out of nowhere, they knew that there were other teams that had a very high grade on Stribling when the 49ers declined to trade out the top draft slot in the second round and take him there.”
“What’s going on right now is he’s trying to get back into football shape,” Schefter said on the Pat McAfee Show. “My understanding is it’s going to be a while before we hear a final decision about him coming back. When he comes back, he’s going to want to be Aaron Donald and he’s not going to come back unless he feels like he’s Aaron Donald. And that’s why it sounds like it’s not going to be a quick verdict from him – that he’s going to be ramping up all during training camp and this may go towards the start of the regular season before we hear that he has or hasn’t signed with the team. He’s going through it all right now. This is his own pre-training camp routine.”
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“Nate Atkins of The Athletic noted how Nacua is the one player on the Rams with the most on the line in 2026. With a looming contract that could be north of $160 million total, Nacua needs to prove his off-field issues are behind him.
Rams’ Puka Nacua has off-field question to answer during 2026 season
“Nacua spent weeks this offseason in a holistic care facility to try to curb some of these issues, and the Rams are making it clear to him that he will need a pattern of strong behavior to undo the concerns in order to earn the payday that his production justifies,” Atkins writes.“
