Turf Show Times
Going into the 2025 season, there was a was clear mandate that the Rams needed to clean up their run defense. The unit was coming off a bottom 10 season in 2024 where they were giving up 130 yards per game at a 4.6 yards per carry clip. While not all on the linebacker corps, L.A. was a bottom 5 team in drives against, number of plays, yards allowed, and time per drive.
Because of the way the Rams have indeed valued the linebacker position, much of the scorn was heaped onto them. Under the McVay regime, and now under four different defensive coordinators, L.A. has moved towards stocking the position with late round and undrafted prospects. The only year Round 3 or better draft capital discharged was Ernest Jones at #103 in 2021 and the only big name free agent was a past-his-prime Bobby Wagner in 2022.
Very little support was added in the 2026 free agency and draft. Grant Stuard was brought aboard, but heis almost exclusively a special teams contributor. There just weren’t many desirable options on the pro market and the draft difference makers were all off the board by the time the Rams made their Round 2 pick at #26. L.A. decided to stand pat at linebacker.
Where the Rams did improve was at edge and cornerback. These upgrades should, in theory, offer the linebacking unit strong support. If play at the second level does not match up, those players will be under the microscope, one with bright, hot lights.
Last year’s defensive snaps are along with players names in bold.
Nate Landman (1017), Omar Speights (673)
Run stopping
Stopping the run is both players strong suit. Both are downhill players that play a physical brand of football. Both are also good tacklers, under 10 percent missed. The should get their share of credit in Rams run defense improvement. From the Bottom 10 to inside the Top 15. The Rams came down to 110.8 yards per game at 4.3 per carry. The incremental drop had a chain effect, also upgrading the defensive drive chart numbers, number of plays, yards per drive, and time per drive. It may not appear to be a great uptick, but allowed the offense to regain time of possession control.
Pass coverage
Looking at 2025 film, the Rams linebackers were a weak link in pass defense. Opponents play-action pass game was highly successful against the Rams. In their base 3-4, with both linebackers on the field, opponents completed passes at a 78 percent clip with 10.9 yards per attempt. Both numbers ranked L.A. at 31st in the NFL. Although the linebackers don’t deserve to shoulder all the blame, it is a fair indicator of the interior pass coverage could stand upgrading. Just for comparison, when the Rams were defending play-action in “dime” and had five defensive backs on the field, the completion rate dropped to 64.2 percent and
Although Landman did break up six passes, he allowed a...
