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Cal linebacker Teddye Buchanan among standouts at East-West Shrine Bowl
Over the last few years, the Los Angeles Rams and general manager Les Snead have done a good job finding good value with under the radar prospects. Players like Puka Nacua and Kobie Turner are two that immediately come to mind. It’s college all-star game season and the East-West Shrine Bowl took place in Dallas over the weekend. This is where the Rams found Kobie Turner and Desjuan Johnson in 2023. Here are five players that stood out.
Given how the NFC Championship game ended with the Philadelphia Eagles rushing for 285 yards and three long rushing touchdowns, there is going to be a lot of focus on the linebacker position this offseason. It would still be a relative surprise to see the Rams invest at linebacker, but that doesn’t mean they won’t draft a player at the position. If they can add a coverage linebacker that doesn’t get steam-rolled in the run game, that’s the perfect kind of player to pair next to Omar Speights.
One player that stood out at the Shrine Bowl was Cal linebacker Teddye Buchanan. Buchanan made a few really nice plays in coverage, but also did a nice job getting through traffic to make stops in the run game. In the play below, he flips his hips and makes a nice effort to get downfield to cover the deep cross. The play results in an incomplete pass.
However, where Buchanan could also be seen as a fit for the Rams is his ability as a blitz player. The Rams defense likes to use simulated pressures. That means that an edge player will typically drop into coverage while a linebacker or another second level player comes on a blitz. Buchanan could not be stopped in pass rush drills in Dallas. Last season at Cal he had 25 pressures which ranked ninth among linebackers.
The Rams are going to need some defensive line depth in the draft. Bobby Brown III, Neville Gallimore, and Larrell Murchison are all pending free agents. Those three players are all key run stoppers in the defensive line rotation. The Rams have had no issues targeting players from the Shrine Bowl when it comes to the defensive line. That’s where they found Kobie Turner in 2023.
Over the weekend in Dallas at the Shrine Bowl, Indiana’s CJ West was a player that really stood out along the defensive line. He was nearly impossible to block and consistently found himself in the backfield. West showed that he can be a powerful player in the trenches and he’s a very good run defender.
The Rams need some speed at wide receiver. Tutu Atwell will be a free agent and the lack of speed at the position really started to show by the end of the year. It would not be surprising to see them add multiple wide receivers this offseason...
