Kamren Kinchens becomes latest Rams defensive back to step up

Throughout the 2025 NFL season, SB Nation’s Doug Farrar will write about the game’s Secret Superstars — those players whose performances might slip under the radar for whatever reasons. In this installment, we focus on Los Angeles Rams safety Kamren Kinchens, who’s just the latest in a long line of Rams defensive backs who are playing their best ball under coaches Chris Shula and Aubrey Pleasant.

We have now entered the Aubrey Pleasant portion of our program.

The Los Angeles Rams’ Assistant Head Coach and Passing Game Coordinator, Pleasant is in his seventh season with the team, and especially lately, he’s done a marvelous job of developing every defensive back that comes into the team’s facility — whether it’s via the draft or other means. Last week, cornerback Emmanuel Forbes Jr., the former first-round washout with the Washington Commanders who was claimed off waivers last December, made Secret Superstars after a series of games in which he was as lockdown as anybody playing his position in the NFL. In the Rams’ 21-19 win over the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday, Forbes followed that up by shutting down Jaxson Smith-Njigba, the league’s most prolific receiver.

It seems like a different Rams defensive back makes the show every week, and in the Seahawks game, it was safety Kamren Kinchens, the second-year man from Miami who the Rams took in the third round of the 2024 draft. The 6’0, 205-pound Kinchens picked off two of Sam Darnold’s four interceptions, and he was a big part of the confusing coverage switches that had Darnold wondering just what the hell was going on out there.

It was the second time in Kinchens’ young career that he had two interceptions against the Seahawks in a game; he did the same in Week 9 of the 2024 season in a 26-20 win that included a 102-yard interception return by Guess Who.

“Man, they want to throw the ball,” Kinchens said with a laugh after Sunday’s performance. “Most people want to just dink and dunk and run the ball and kind of chip their way down the field. So people who want to kind of put it down the field or kind of give us a shot, that’s their mistake.”

Where does Kinchens get his knack for dual picks in the same game? From another Miami alum who may have been the greatest coverage safety… well, ever.

“Every time I do catch a pick, Ed Reed at Miami always told me, ‘If you catch one, it’s not illegal to catch another one,” he said after last year’s two-pick game against Seattle. “So I try to go out there and catch as many as I can. I want to catch eight, 10,'”

Kinchens’ first pick this time around came with 10:59 left in the first quarter on Seattle’s third offensive play. The Rams showed a two-deep shell pre-snap, and then, while safety Kamren Curl stayed deep, Kinchens came down to rob Darnold’s intermediate curl route to Kupp in what became...