Turf Show Times
The Rams’ pass rush is elite, but will a shaky secondary hold them back?
The Los Angeles Rams will head into the 2025 season with high expectations. They currently have the seventh-highest odds to win the Super Bowl and have the third-highest odds to win the NFC. It’s not far-fetched to call this Rams team a contender.
While the Rams may be seen as a contender, that doesn’t mean the roster is without concerns. There are some question marks when it comes to the tackle depth, specifically on the left side. The same can be said about the depth at guard. There is a scenario in which the bottom completely falls out.
This is also a team that had needs at cornerback and decided to run it back. They brought back Ahkello Witherspoon and kept Darious Williams. All the eggs now seem to be in the Jalen Ramsey basket. While Ramsey is an upgrade over any of the Rams cornerbacks, he’s also not the all-pro player that he was in 2020 and 2021.
Over the last few weeks, The Athletic Football Show has gone through all 32 teams and their offseasons, determining whether or not they would buy or sell the offseason. Hitting the contenders earlier this week, both hosts touched on the Rams. Said host Derrik Klassen,
“This defense still sucks. Like it’s not good. And maybe if they get Jalen Ramsey, I do think that that will shift my mind a little bit...I wanted more at defensive back. Even with Jalen Ramsey, I would have wanted maybe an earlier pick at defensive back. I would have wanted maybe another competition signing at Defensive Back. Like there were plenty of those mid tier corners that they could have signed. And I know that that’s not something they love to do. This is a team that very much either likes to have a star at corner or they just don’t give a shit and they’ll throw anybody out there...This was one of the worst secondaries in the league last year. And even if they get Ramsey, I expect that to continue to be the case...the secondary unit as an individual unit is one of the worst in the league. Player by player, it’s one of the worst...When you’re shooting for passable, I just feel like you leave yourself open for a lot of things to go wrong potentially. For the most part, this Rams defense was like the 24th best team in the league. And that was even true over just the second half of the year when these guys started to ramp up.”
Klassen has good reason to be concerned about the Rams secondary even if they do sign Ramsey. This is a unit that finished the season ranked 28th in EPA per pass and 26th in yards per pass over the course of the season. That was all while having a pass rush that ranked 10th in pressure rate.
To put that in perspective, out of the...
