Turf Show Times
When it comes to Week 1 in the NFL, it’s very easy to overreact as it’s the only thing that we’ve seen in the 2025 season. However, it’s important to remember that what the Los Angeles Rams are in Week 1 is not what they’ll be in Week 6. Teams will make schematic and personnel changes. The rust will come off and players will start to hit their stride. Here are five Rams overreactions from Week 1.
Over the past two drafts, the Rams have spent decent draft capital at the running back position. They spent a top-100 pick on Blake Corum in 2024 and then a top-125 pick on Jarquez Hunter back in April. Despite that, the Rams signed Kyren Williams in the offseason to an extension before the season. In Week 1, Williams had 18 carries to Corum’s one and Hunter was inactive.
The idea with the Rams run game this offseason was to get Corum more involved and then potentially sprinkle in Hunter as a change of pace, explosive running back. By keeping Williams fresh, he also may be more capable of hitting a big play. Over the last two years, Williams and the Rams run game have lacked explosiveness and variance. That’s not a knock on Williams, but rather who he is as a player. We’ll likely never see a true 50-50 split between Williams and Corum. However, it would be nice to see more of a split than in Week 1.
A thing to remember here is that when McVay likes a running back, that player tends to see a strong majority of the carries. Ideally, Corum is able to be more in the 4-6 touch range moving forward and Sunday was a case of it being a tough opponent. If the Rams are going to keep Williams fresh over 17 games, they need to get Corum involved.
By most metrics, the Rams offensive line was the worst in the NFL in Week 1 against the Texans. That’s never something that you want to see. At the same time, the Texans defensive line is one of the stronger units in the NFL. While the Rams were bad in pass protection, they did hold their own in the run game. As a unit, they ranked sixth in run-block win-rate.
This is something to monitor over the next few weeks. It won’t get much easier against a strong Tennessee Titans defensive line before playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3. The Rams consistently helped their tackles by chipping with a tight end or running back. Additionally, Beaux Limmer had to step in at both guard spots and struggled in pass protection. Multiple things can be true. The Rams offensive line isn’t the worst in the NFL, but they also need to be better than they were on Sunday.
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