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50 players on defense that the Rams should be watching at the NFL Combine
The Los Angeles Rams may not be attending the NFL Combine of value some of the metrics. However, that doesn’t mean they’ll completely ignore the data or not be paying attention. General manager Les Snead made big strides last offseason rebuilding the defense with cornerstones like Jared Verse and Braden Fiske. Now, it’s time to focus on the secondary.
Last year in Indianapolis, Verse’s 10-yard split was similar to that of Von Miller while Fiske had one of the more impressive weeks in Indianapolis. Here are players at this year’s Combine to pay attention to.
Many will have their eyes on the linebackers this week when it comes to the Rams. The Rams seem to like their linebackers to be explosive. We’re looking at a 10-foot threshold in the broad jump and a 35-inch vertical. Several linebackers that the Rams have drafted have had 32-inch arms.
While the content in interviews between teams and players at the Combine tend to remain private, I am interested to see what teams say about Notre Dame linebacker Jack Kiser. This is a player that teams are going to fall in love with from a personality perspective. He’s the ultimate leader on a defense and just a guy that teams are going to want in the locker room. How he tests in explosive and agility drills will also be big for him this week.
The other linebacker that I’ll be watching closely is Carson Schweisinger. If Schweisinger runs a fast 40-time, he could jump into the top-50 picks of the draft. The instincts and speed are obvious on tape, but the way he moves is impressive. If he can show that in testing in the 40-yard dash and the 20-yard shuttle, he’s going to fly up draft boards.
It’s rare for players to run the three-cone now after what happened with DK Metcalf. With that said, the Rams do value agility with their safeties. If safeties do test here, the threshold to watch will be around the 80th percentile.
The player that everybody will be watching when it comes to safeties is Nick Emmanwori from South Carolina. Emmanwori is an insane athlete and should be one of the better testers in Indianapolis. That athleticism is going to show in his testing scores and it wouldn’t be surprising to hear people raving about him on Friday when the defensive backs test. According to Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, Emmanwori did an 11-4...
