Turf Show Times
Will all 13 make the opening roster again? How much improvement can be expected?
In two days, the Los Angeles Rams will welcome a full, 90 man roster into the confines of Loyola-Marymount University for the start of 2025 training camp, with All players are signed and accounted for. 23 rookies, six drafted and 17 undrafted free agents, will join the veterans looking for a coveted position on the opening roster.
Last year, 13 rookies were on the billet to start the season. There’s an old NFL adage that the biggest improvement a pro makes is between Year 1 and 2. Holding that thought, what should fans make of the performance of last year’s rookie class? What’s their outlook for 2025?
Each players draft status in bold and parentheses.
How high is his ceiling? He’s just growing into his traits. With the upgrades to the Rams interior line, which should give him innumerable 1on1 situations, there’s a case to make for tripling his sack totals getting close to 100 tackles. That’s the thing with Verse, aside from his ability to create quarterback pressure, he’s a tackle machine as well. Hell, if he cleans half of his 17 misses, he’s almost there.
The Rams gave up a lot to acquire him and there’s plenty of room for improvement, but Fiske gave every indication of bringing a stellar return on investment. He led the team in sacks (8.5) and added 10 tackles for loss in only 661 snaps. Reports are that he’s put on eight lb. and lowered his body fat for 2025.
All Karty has to do is match his rookie season and it’s an unqualified success. 85.3% of field goals made is sterling. With the Rams offense, consistency needs to be the name of the game on field goals and extra points.
Played very close to his draft projection. Struggled at times with his pursuit angles, but showed a great sense for ball hawking and gave glimpses of being a physical enforcer. He chalked up tackles 57 tackles, only marked down with six misses, all in just under 50% of defensive reps. He still likely to start the season as S#3, but his and McCollough’s play bode well for the Rams to employ a lot of dime packages.
It’s hard to gauge the ceiling on a player like Whittington because I think what he is what he is, a football player. He’s the same player he was at Texas, not a mercurial playmaker, but rather a versatile piece that can be productive in many facets of the game. He appears to be comfortable being a second or third option, but then shine targeted when the chips are down. Although he only caught 22 passes, 14 went for first downs and he only ran the...
