Turf Show Times
Omar Speights is not the first name that fans think of when they think of Rams training camp opening this week. He’s not one of the first 10 names, or probably the first 20. But if camp is for competition, then Speights is the face of one of the most intense battles expected to happen for a starting job on L.A.‘s depth chart in the next two months.
Will Speights fend off two linebackers coming for his job?
During his rookie season, Speights made his instincts and high football IQ clear after playing a handful of snaps against the Seahawks:
“They motioned a little bit before, so I just kind of knew wherever that motion ended up going, that was where the run was gonna go,” Speights said. “So I ended up just being a cut back, so I just checked my gap first and then flew over the top just looking for an open gap to hit and I found it, and (the defensive line) did a great job up front of getting penetration… so it was easy for me to just clean up.”
“Playing ball for a long time, you get a feel for certain things,” Speights said.
That “playing ball for a long time” included five seasons of college football, including four at Oregon State and one at LSU. Speights racked up 378 tackles and 25 tackles for a loss during his career, but sometimes extra experience in college can be a hindrance to a player’s draft stock, not an aid. Especially after Speights was named as a freshman All-American in 2019, an honor that could have propelled him to leave school early instead of late.
Teams expect true NFL players to enter the draft soon after they’re eligible. Not to wait it out as long as possible.
So Speights went undrafted in 2024, largely held back for physical and athletic reasons. Lance Zeirlein of NFL.com was perhaps also lower on his instincts than Rams coaches have been in the last two years:
“With average size and instincts, Speights appeared to be more comfortable in the comfort of the Oregon State defense than he was at LSU in 2023. He can be hit or miss in reading play design and finding his best positioning to make plays and he tends to sit back and wait a hair too long. He plays with active feet and good lateral slide quickness and rarely drifts into traffic unnecessarily. He sees what he hits in the box but lacks agility as an open-field tackler and can be exploited in coverage. The pre-2023 tape is better, but he might not be enough of a downhill alpha and playmaker to garner draft attention.”
But physically, Zierlein may be overselling Speights compared to most NFL linebackers.
At 6’, 229, he checks no boxes in that regard.
However, that didn’t stop Speights from signing with the Los Angeles Rams after the draft, truly the most ideal...
