In just over a week, the Los Angeles Rams will have the chance to make their highest draft pick in a decade. The Rams own the No. 13 selection when Round 1 begins on April 23, thanks to last year’s trade down with the Atlanta Falcons. If they keep it, it’ll be just the second first-round pick they’ve made since they took Jared Goff No. 1 overall in 2016. Advertisement That adds quite a bit of intrigue to this year’s event, especially for a team weighing so much in the present and future. In this week’s mailbag, readers had questions on trades up and down, the offensive line, the secondary and more. Note: Questions have been edited for length and clarity. Is trading up for wide receiver Carnell Tate a real possibility, or am I getting my hopes up? — NightOwl1922 Do you think the Rams have enough draft ammo to trade up for linebacker Sonny Styles? — Tim F. I’ll tackle both of these in one answer because deciding the level to which the Rams will or should trade up is also interesting. I don’t think the Rams will part with their 2027 first-round pick, just because of the opportunity to cash that in on a quarterback in next year’s loaded class. They would have to be so blown away by those players compared to alternatives and/or confident they can land a quarterback of the future after that pick — but that could take a second trade up. Based on the Jimmy Johnson trade value chart, the Rams can get as high as the No. 8 pick by offering this year’s second-rounder, based on value. They can maybe add a little more to get to No. 6 from the Cleveland Browns, who seem like a strong trade-back option. That feels like the range where Tate and Styles are most likely to go. And that’s where the positions matter a ton. To move up for Styles, the Rams would have to find another route to filling their No. 3 wide receiver role. Doing that with a third-round pick would likely mean the rookie receiver is either stashed or a higher-floor player with lower future upside. Los Angeles is trying to address both areas with this role, given that Puka Nacua and Davante Adams both missed three games last season, and Adams is in the final year of his contract at age 33. Advertisement Some view Tate as the only durable receiver in this class with No. 1 upside, and if the Rams want to hedge against the possibility of not paying Nacua, that would be a reason to move. But if they view this pick primarily as a No. 3 receiver who will become the No. 2 after Adams departs, the need to get the top wideout in the draft isn’t as high when USC’s Makai Lemon and Arizona State’s Jordyn Tyson are also intriguing. A more realistic trade-up option for me is a small move up for their favorite between Lemon and Tyson once Tate is off the board. I feel like the Rams are more likely to move down and either target Oregon tight end Kenyon Sadiq, Indiana wide receiver Omar Cooper Jr. or an offensive lineman. What prospects would they consider staying at 13 and taking, if someone were to fall like Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love or Ohio State safety Caleb Downs? — Derek K. It’s always hard to analyze whether a team should or will trade down because it depends on whether they’re coming up for someone. General managers hold draft picks tightly and only move them with intent. I don’t think we’ll see as many trades this year, with teams protecting picks for a 2027 draft expected to be much stronger than this year’s. But it is a good thought exercise to identify the line in the sand where a trade offer isn’t worth taking because of who is available. I’d put Tate, Lemon and Styles above that line. Those three are among the very best players at two of the only positions where the Rams could use a major talent upgrade. Of course, the answer can change if another team is willing to overpay — and especially if it is willing to part with a 2027 first-rounder. But I don’t think it’s worth trading down for fair 2026 value if any of those three are available. I don’t put Downs in that camp because the Rams have already paid Quentin Lake and Kam Curl, have high hopes for Kam Kinchens and Jaylen McCollough, and also now have Trent McDuffie to give some inside snaps to. They just don’t have the room to make use of a versatile safety like Downs. If he’s available, it makes a trade down all the more likely. Advertisement Love is the interesting one. The Rams need his position about as little as they need any this year, but you could also argue that he is one of the three best players in the entire draft — to the degree where he could be a legitimate upgrade over Kyren Williams. It gets tricky because what the Rams value most from the running back position is pass protection, and it’s hard to get better than Williams in that regard. They also believe there’s another surge coming from Blake Corum, and one of Corum or Williams would have to depart in a trade if Love is the pick. But I think he’s of the talent level that they’d need to take him at No. 13 if trade offers aren’t coming and Tate, Lemon and Styles are all off the board. In reality, if Love or Downs are available at No. 13, the Rams should be in a great spot to move back. That could be a slight move back, knowing the pick is for those players, so it doesn’t distort the rest of the board. Or, ideally, it’s a more sizable drop back to land either a Day 2 pick this year or a first-rounder next year. Is a tackle a realistic option? Everyone seems to be mocking a tackle to the Rams at No. 13. — Gabe It’s realistic, but I wouldn’t call it the most likely scenario. If the Rams are taking a tackle at No. 13, it’s because they see him as a clear talent upgrade over Warren McClendon Jr. That can be worth upgrading a premium position and locking in a controlled salary for five years, which matters as McClendon enters a contract year. With Georgia’s Monroe Freeling expected to go in the top 10, the group of options could include Miami’s Francis Mauigoa, Alabama’s Kadyn Proctor and Utah’s two tackles, Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu. Each is talented but has some questions, and where the Rams land on the answers will dictate if they are real options: Do they see Mauigoa, Proctor and Fano as tackles rather than guards? Do they believe Lomu and Proctor can transition from left to right tackle? Advertisement The Rams need a swing tackle, so drafting a starter here could move McClendon back into that role. But McClendon found a much better fit by locking in at right tackle last season, so they’d also have to believe he’s ready to do both at a higher level than he has previously shown. I do expect the Rams to make multiple offensive line selections in this draft. Left tackle Alaric Jackson is the only starter under contract after next season, and it feels like a stretch for this team to extend McClendon and guards Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson if they also want to keep Nacua, Byron Young and Kobie Turner. They need depth at nearly every spot, too. If the best player available is a tackle and it’s the No. 13 pick, I could see the upgrade happening. I would view it as less likely than a receiver, which is where the Rams have both present and future needs to solve, and know for certain that their current options are not good enough to fill. What best explains Sean McVay letting defensive backs coach Aubrey Pleasant go the same offseason they upgraded the secondary? That suggests they want to change both the coaching/scheme and the players. Which in turn implies they don’t like how the secondary was put together and coached. — Rick S. I believe this has less to do with Pleasant himself and more to do with Jimmy Lake and Kliff Kingsbury. McVay wanted to add a coach with Kingsbury’s experience to the staff. He needed a role for him that was better than passing game coordinator, and that was the job left after promoting Nate Scheelhaase to offensive coordinator as a way of keeping him for at least one more season. The other option was assistant head coach, which was one of the two roles Pleasant held. The other was defensive backs coach, and the Rams have been big believers in Jimmy Lake since they added him as a senior defensive assistant following his firing as defensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons a year ago. Jimmy Lake was once Chris Petersen’s hand-picked successor at the University of Washington after creating one of the best defensive back pipelines to the NFL in recent seasons. Advertisement At 49 years old, he’s viewed as a rising star in this sport, and the Rams couldn’t keep him in a role like senior defensive assistant for much longer. And so Pleasant’s departure was mostly circumstantial. The Rams have to pull out all the stops to chase a Super Bowl this season, and they don’t feel like they can wait to see whether the coaches they had could adjust schematically and personally to the influx of talent they were bringing in with McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. Pleasant has to wear some of the blame for last year’s second-half regression that culminated in Sam Darnold’s breakout playoff performance to end the season. The Rams tried to capitalize on the midseason playmaking breakouts of Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. and paid for the increased complexity with Quentin Lake off the field due to elbow surgery. By the later stages of the playoffs, they had to dial back into shells and zone coverages that were too predictable against great offensive schemes. But that also came after Young hurt his knee, and the pass rush couldn’t carry the defense the way general manager Les Snead built it to. Pleasant was ultimately a fall guy for the Rams’ lack of investment in this group. The talent at cornerback was never good enough, as illustrated by what has happened with Darious Williams retiring and Durant, Ahkello Witherspoon and Roger McCreary all signing one-year deals to compete for jobs elsewhere. I’m sure he’d love to coach talents like McDuffie and Watson, but his Rams tenure featured much more cost-effective options. But in a year that’s all about trying to win the Super Bowl with a 38-year-old Matthew Stafford, the Rams couldn’t mess around with this group anymore. That meant leveling up the talent and also finding the best coaching fit for those players, and they believe they have it now after Jimmy Lake recruited and coached McDuffie at Washington. Time will tell if they’re right.