After three-plus months of battling and trying to right the ship, the Los Angeles Rams came up short of their primary goal this season: making the playoffs. In a year where the NFC was littered with Super Bowl contenders, the Rams’ 9-7 record wasn’t enough to get them into the dance.
After making the Super Bowl last season, heading home at the end of December is certainly not something the Rams saw coming. But, it’s the reality of not playing up to the standards and failing to find any sort of consistency over the course of 17 weeks.
Now, the Rams enter the offseason with endless questions. Will Wade Phillips be back? Will they trade Todd Gurley? What is Gerald Everett’s future? Can Sean McVay find his magic again?
No matter what happens this spring, the Rams will likely be considered one of the more dangerous teams in the NFC just based on the core they’ve built with Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey and Jared Goff. If they want to get back to the Super Bowl again, though, here’s a list of moves they should consider making.
Re-sign Cory Littleton
The Rams will probably have to decide between keeping Littleton or Dante Fowler Jr. If they can find a way to keep both, they absolutely should. But given their top-heavy roster with Jalen Ramsey still to pay, it’s hard to imagine them coming up with the funds to extend all of them. Quality pass rushers like Fowler are hard to find, but so are linebackers in the mold of Littleton.
He can do it all for the Rams, from covering running backs to defending the run to blitzing off the edge or up the middle. He finished the season with 134 tackles (six for a loss), 3.5 sacks, two forced fumbles (four recoveries), two interceptions and nine passes defensed.
Here are all the players with at least 130 tackles, 3.0 sacks, two forced fumbles and two interceptions this season: Cory Littleton.
That’s it.
He’s a unique linebacker who can do everything in the middle of the field for a defense, and someone the Rams must find a way to keep. They just have to hope Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Samson Ebukam and their other young pass rushers can step up in Fowler’s place if he leaves.