Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams will begin the 2025 NFL season on Sunday when they take on the Houston Texans. This year will be a big one for the Rams as they have Super Bowl aspirations. Before the beginning of the season, here are 10 thoughts that I have on the 2025 Rams.
There has rarely ever been a concern about whether or not Matthew Stafford would play in Week 1. Throughout the entire back injury fiasco, the Rams always seemed confident that Stafford would be ready for the game against the Texans. Still, it’s fair to have concerns about how Stafford at 38 can hold up over the course of a very physical NFL season.
Within the first four weeks, Stafford will likely betaking hits from Will Anderson, Danielle Hunter, Nick Bosa, and Jalen Carter. Stafford has always been a quarterback that plays through injuries. There may not be concerns about Stafford taking the first snaps against the Texans, but there are a lot of questions when it comes to everything that follows.
Over the course of Sean McVay’s tenure with the Rams, there have been several iterations of the McVay offense. In 2017, the offense revolved around the wide zone run game and play action off of that. When the Rams won the Super Bowl in 2018, it was an offense that operated out of empty and spread the defense out. Following the disaster that was 2022, McVay completely rebuilt the run game and incorporated gap scheme into the offense.
Now, it’s possible that we see another version of McVay’s Rams. The Rams drafted tight end Terrance Ferguson in the second round. The Ferguson pick has had many speculating that the Rams will be introducing more 12 personnel. With Davante Adams, the Rams are four deep at wide receiver. Could they go back to more empty looks and spread defenses out? At its core, the McVay offense will operate off of the same principles, but it will be interesting to see what that looks like.
Had Jared Verse recorded eight sacks as a rookie, he may already be considered one of the top edge rushers in the NFL. However, Verse lacked some finishing ability early on during his rookie season and that hurt his final sack numbers. With that said, he still managed to have an impact pressuring the quarterback, ranking inside the top-5 in most pressure metrics.
While Verse may not win the Defensive Player of the Year, it would be a surprise if he wasn’t at least in the conversation. Verse finished on just 5.8 percent of his pressures last year. If that jumps close to what Jonathan Greenard did for Minnesota last year, capitalizing on 15 percent of his pressures, 11.5 sacks should be the expectation for Verse. With some forced fumbles and other impact plays, that would get Verse...
