Under Jeff Fisher and Les Snead, the Rams' annual guest lists have been very informative of which players' names they're going to call on draft day. For sure, four of the Rams' first six picks were in for pre-draft visits in 2012, and I believe every player they drafted last year had come for a visit. It's also worth noting that last year's invite list was pretty heavy with WRs and LBs, which is where the Rams went with their first two picks.
I'm not positive if Zac Stacy visited last year or not, and therein lies a little problem. Either because they're unable to have their ear to the ground at the right times, or the Rams ask to have some visits kept quiet, local media hasn't reported all of the pre-draft visits here in the Fisher era. We only found out T.J. McDonald and Stedman Bailey had official visits last year after they were drafted.
Reported to have visited Rams Park: (updated 5/18)
Major prospects:
Kelvin Benjamin, WR, Florida State
Joel Bitonio, T, Nevada
Terrence Brooks, S, Florida State ("known" by Nick Wagoner but never reported until a week after the draft)
Jadeveon Clowney, DE, South Carolina
Darqueze Dennard, CB, Michigan State
Dakota Dozier, T, Furman
Aaron Donald, DT, Pitt (1st round pick)
Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri (local)
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida State
Bruce Ellington, WR, South Carolina
Mike Evans, WR, Texas A&M
Kyle Fuller, CB, Virginia Tech
Justin Gilbert, CB, Oklahoma State
Ra'Shede Hageman, DT, Minnesota
Lamarcus Joyner, DB, Florida State (pre-draft visit reported after he was drafted) / (2nd round pick)
Cyrus Kouandjio, T, Alabama
Taylor Lewan, T, Michigan
Khalil Mack, OLB, Buffalo
Jeffrey Pagan, DT, Alabama
Greg Robinson, T, Auburn (1st round pick)
Tom Savage, QB, Pittsburgh
Ryan Shazier, OLB, Ohio State
Will Sutton, DT, Arizona State
Stephon Tuitt, DT, Notre Dame
Billy Turner, OT, North Dakota State
Jason Verrett, CB, TCU
Sammy Watkins, WR, Clemson
Count by position:
DT - 6
OT - 6
WR - 4
CB - 4
OLB - 2
QB - 1
DE - 2
Jake Matthews has not visited, and may not visit at all. Reportedly the Rams are already satisfied with what they know about him.
The list above is the 24 visits confirmed by Jim Thomas, along with Kony Ealy, a first-round prospect the Rams had in as a local prospect without using one of their 30 allotted visits. There are still six slots that even the very dialed-in Thomas can only speculate on. Some sources had listed Garrett Gilbert and Martavis Bryant as players who had visited the Rams, but they were probably actually reporting on the Rams attending those players' workouts.
The continuing surprise of this list is the complete absence of safeties. However, this time last year, with also 24 top 30 visits confirmed, the safety-needy Rams had reportedly had only one safety, Shamarko Thomas, in for a visit. Then they drafted T.J. McDonald in the third round and we found out after the fact that he'd had a visit here. So absence from the list of invitees != absence from the Rams war room radar.
Local visits besides Ealy - most were in the 4/26 weekend:
Ray Agnew Jr., FB, Southern Illinois
Maurice Alexander, S, Utah State (4th round pick)
Theo Alexander, S, SE Louisiana
Tyler Davis, CB, Missouri Valley
Nick DiMarco, LB, William Penn
Aaron Hill, LB, Minnesota
Reggie Jordan, TE/FB, Missouri Western
Don Shumpert, WR, Iowa
This is is probably the last update for the pre-draft visit list, but I'll update and bump it if there's any further news.
-$-
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