Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams will begin their 2025 season on Sunday at SoFi Stadium when they take on the Houston Texans. We’ve gotten through the media cycle of rankings and anonymous quotes from NFL executives. As one final exercise before the season, I’m dipping my toe into a few ‘half-baked takes’. Essentially, these are takes that I believe in, but I’m not quite ready to stand on the table and pound my chest defending them. These are all things that I believe are within the realm of possibility, but there are still some things holding me back from jumping off the diving board from the deep end.
There may not be a Rams player that I am more excited to watch this season outside of second year edge rusher Jared Verse. Verse only had 4.5 sacks as a rookie, but that doesn’t reflect his full impact on the field. As a rookie, Verse finished fourth in the NFL in pressures and ranked third in Brandon Thorn’s True Pressure Rate. He also had the third-most high-quality pressures.
Verse may not win the Defensive Player of the Year and that shouldn’t be the expectation. However, I fully expect him to be in the top five players in the conversation for the award. Verse is someone that the Rams defense is making the focal point and 14.5 sacks is possible. That should put him in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation along with Myles Garrett, Nick Bosa, and Aidan Hutchinson.
The narrative on the Rams defense all offseason has been that it’s not very good. There are certainly concerns to be had about the secondary. This is a defense that is threading the needle and hoping that a very good pass rush can lift up the back end of the defense. The linebackers also have questions as Omar Speights heads into year two and Nate Landman joins the group.
When it comes to the Rams defense, the concerns are valid. With that said, this is a defense that seemed to never be able to get past the narrative of what it was early in the season. In Weeks 1-5, this was a defense that ranked 32nd in defense EPA per play. However, from Weeks 7-17, they were 10th. After Week 12, they allowed more than 20 points in just two games that the starters played. They took over the wild card game against the Minnesota Vikings. The Rams may not be a top-10 defense, but they will finish closer to 10th than 23rd.
Ever since Cooper Kupp’s triple crown season and the beginning of 2022, the Rams have been missing a wide receiver that can consistently make plays in the red zone. That’s exactly what they have in Davante Adams. His body control and ability to...
