New-Look Rams Finally Have a QB, but Defense Will Carry LA in 2016
Much has been written and said about the young offensive talent for the Los Angeles Rams. The star tailback they have in Todd Gurley. The star they hope they have in rookie quarterback (and No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL draft) Jared Goff.
Gurley is an immensely talented young ball-carrier. Goff may well one day become the franchise quarterback the Rams have searched for since Kurt Warner left town.
But make no mistake, in their first season back in La-La Land the Rams will go as far as their defense takes them. It’s easily the strength of the team, and a unit with plenty of star power all their own.
The Rams added to their defensive firepower on Wednesday. As Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com reported, the Rams signed free-agent defensive tackle Dominique Easley, a first-round pick of the New England Patriots back in 2014, to a one-year deal.
Easley, who was released by New England earlier this spring after two injury-marred seasons in Beantown, confirmed the signing on Twitter:
Combined with the prior addition of former New York Jets defensive end Quinton Coples, the deal gives the Rams a staggering five former first-round picks on the defensive line for the second consecutive year.
And Coples and Easley won’t even start.
The Rams line, which ranked sixth in the NFL against the run last year, per Football Outsiders, is anchored by third-year tackle Aaron Donald. All Donald has done to this point in his short NFL career is win Defensive Rookie of the Year honors with a 48-tackle, nine-sack performance two years ago, then follow that up with 69 stops and 11 sacks en route to finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season.
J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans may have beaten Donald out for the DPOY vote with the Associated Press, but as Nathan Jahnke of Pro Football Focus pointed out that wasn’t the case at PFF.
In fact, that site graded Donald as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player period in 2015:
What might be most surprising about Donald reaching the top spot is that he’s ahead of J.J. Watt. While Watt had more sacks, Donald was getting more pressure on a per-play basis. This is especially impressive because Donald lined up against a guard or center on 88.4 percent of his plays, while Watt did on only 3.7 percent of his snaps. It’s more difficult to get sacks and pressures against guards and centers compared to tackles. Donald also had a better run-stop percentage than Watt. In terms of grades, 2015 was Watt’s lowest-graded season out of his last four (though still good enough to earn him a top-5 spot in our Top 101). While you could partially blame injury, the play on the field is what matters for the Top 101, and in 2015, Aaron Donald was the best.
However, for all Donald’s prowess in 2015, the Rams were only an OK 11th in the NFL in sacks and a mediocre 17th in pass rushing, according to Football Outsiders. That was in large part due to an injury-plagued fifth NFL season for end Robert Quinn, whose five sacks in eight games were his fewest since his rookie campaign.
Quinn, who turned 26 on Wednesday, isn’t interested in talking about the past, instead preferring to look to the future:
OK, I’ll talk about the past for him. Quinn piled up 10.5 sacks two years ago despite a terrible start to the season. The year before that he exploded for 50 solos and 19 sacks. He had 10.5 in 2012. If he’s healthy, Cincinnati‘s Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap or Miami‘s Ndamukong Suh and Mario Williams aren’t the most formidable tackle-end duo in the NFL.
It’s Donald and Quinn, and it isn’t close.
Throw in end William Hayes (whose play last year made Chris Long expendable) and tackle Michael Brockers (who was a top-15 performer versus the run in 2015, per PFF), and you have arguably the league’s best defensive front.
And we’re only getting started.
After three seasons manning the outside for the Rams, linebacker Alec Ogletree will shift to the middle in 2016, taking over for longtime defensive leader James Laurinaitis. After missing 12 games last year compliments of an ankle injury, Ogletree admitted to Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times the pressure is on him not only to return to form, but to thrive at his new position.
“It’s going to be a great challenge for me—probably my biggest challenge that I’ve had my whole football career,” Ogletree said. “I’m definitely excited about it and ready to get the ball rolling.”
There’s little reason to think he won’t. Ogletree is a wildly athletic 245-pounder with the sort of sideline-to-sideline athleticism that’s all the rage in today’s NFL. Ogletree topped 110 tackles in each of his first two seasons, and he averaged 10.5 tackles and half a sack over his four games last year.
The decision to make the Rams faster defensively by bumping Ogletree inside was made possible by the man who filled in for him last year. Actually, to say that Mark Barron “filled in” is a disservice. The converted safety resurrected his NFL career in 2015, leading the Rams with 116 tackles and grading out as Pro Football Focus‘ 12th-best 4-3 OLB despite weighing in at only about 215 pounds.
Barron, who was rewarded by the team with a five-year, $45 million contract extension, told the team’s official website (via Mark Inabinett of AL.com) that while he resisted the move to linebacker at first, he now embraces it:
In my mind, when I came into this league, my goal was to be the best safety in this league. It’s kind of hard for me to go away from that. I kind of changed it. Now I just want to be one of the best defensive players in the league. But that’s kind of part of the reason I don’t like being called (a linebacker) because in my mind what I was working toward was being known as one of the best safeties in this league.
I want to be known as one of the best at what I do. Regardless of whatever I’m doing, I want to be known as one of the best at it. So I guess I can make it that simple: I want to be known as one of the best.
Strong-side linebacker Akeem Ayers hasn’t been able to duplicate the 104-tackle, six-sack 2012 season with the Tennessee Titans that got him labeled one of the league’s most promising young linebackers, but the 26-year-old offers just the sort of combination of quickness and toughness that 21st century NFL teams seek in a two-down “thumper” type.
As a unit, it’s an imposing LB corps. When added to the Rams’ modern incarnation of the Fearsome Foursome, it gives L.A. a front seven as good as any in the game.
If there’s an Achilles’ heel for the Rams defensively, it lies at the back end, due mostly to personnel losses. With only one franchise tag and two talented young cornerbacks, the Rams chose Trumaine Johnson over Janoris Jenkins, who scored a huge payday with the New York Giants. Safety Rodney McLeod chased the Benjamins to Philadelphia.
And then there’s the matter of T.J. McDonald, who could be staring at league discipline following his DUI arrest earlier this month.
Still, not only is Johnson a year younger than Jenkins, but from the perspective of their rankings at Pro Football Focus in 2015, Johnson (20th among cornerbacks) was a better player than Jenkins (24th). As Gary Klein of the L.A.Times reported, Rams general manager Les Snead talked up Johnson’s potential back in March.
“Since we drafted Trumaine in 2012, he has developed into an integral part of our defense,” Snead said. “We look forward to having him with us this season and more to come.”
Jenkins’ absence creates a hole opposite Johnson, but E.J. Gaines fared well playing nearly 1,000 snaps as a starter two years ago before losing all of last year to a foot injury. Youngster LaMarcus Joyner is physical enough to move to safety and replace McLeod if need be. And McDonald doesn’t have the history of off-field transgressions that could lead to a lengthy suspension.
Long story short, while the Rams may not have made great strides in the defensive backfield, there also isn’t any real reason to think the secondary will be markedly worse either.
When the curtain goes up on the 2016 Los Angeles Rams and this year’s edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks, it’s a safe bet certain storylines will take center stage.
The move from America’s heartland to Southern California. Gurley‘s second season after winning OROY in 2015. And, of course, Goff’s arrival as the No. 1 overall pick (and the expectations that brings with it).
From a football perspective, however, the focus should be squarely on Gregg Williams’ defense. On Donald’s emergence as one of the NFL’s most feared defenders, Quinn’s return to action, Ogletree‘s move to the middle and a new-look Rams secondary’s ability to at least tread water.
Because it’s those stories (and how they play out) that will determine whether this is finally the year the Rams take the step from mediocrity to playoff contention.
Lights! Camera! ACTION!
Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.
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