Turf Show Times
The Los Angeles Rams made the controversial move on Tuesday during roster cutdowns to cut fifth-round pick, linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. Whether or not that was the correct move is something that we’ll find out in upcoming years. However, for this version of the Rams roster, it was a move that the team felt was the right one.
Still, despite Paul being drafted with the fifth-to-last pick in the fifth round, you would have thought that the Rams had just cut a Pro Bowl caliber player. There was less of a negative reaction when the Rams inexplicably traded Ernest Jones last offseason for the equivalent of peanuts.
While the Rams opted to keep a linebacker group of Nate Landman, Omar Speights, Troy Reeder, and Shaun Dolac, many will take Paul being cut as opting to cut him over Troy Reeder. The fact of the matter is, it was never Reeder or Paul. It was always between Paul and Dolac. At the end of the day, it was the undrafted free agent that beat out the rookie draft pick.
That doesn’t make cutting Paul any less disappointing or Reeder being on the roster any less frustrating. It’s simply how the coaching staff viewed the linebacker position group. Reeder is an experienced player that the coaching staff can be comfortable with in a depth role. Speights and Landman are the starters, but to have two rookies behind them would have been a risk. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula even said as much,
“He’s a guy that we can trust. If God forbid anything happened, he’s the guy that could just seamlessly go in. He has been in the system. I’ve been his linebacker coach a couple of different times and know him very well.”
Having that known commodity and experience as depth is something that the coaching staff valued. Nobody can say for certain that Paul was definitively better than Reeder, even if he potentially had more upside. The Rams have tackled the offseason with the mindset of having a high floor at certain positions, especially if that player is a known commodity. It’s how they also approached center by re-signing Coleman Shelton instead of starting Beaux Limmer again.
It’s clear that Paul simply didn’t work out or wasn’t the fit that the Rams thought he might have been. Had Paul simply needed time to develop, the Rams may have opted to sign him to the practice squad as he cleared waivers. Instead, the Rams chose not to do so, opting to keep Elias Neal while Paul signed with the Seattle Seahawks.
Every team passed on Paul multiple times and a big reason for that was that he is a size anomaly. Paul’s arm-length at the NFL Combine measured in sub-30 inches which is in the first percentile for linebackers. That’s not to say that Paul can’t have success, but arm length is an important trait for linebackers when it comes to shedding blocks. This was a concern of his coming...
