One of the biggest losses suffered by the Los Angeles Rams this offseason was Brandon Staley, who the Chargers hired to be their head coach. Staley was the Rams’ defensive coordinator for just one year, but he helped them field the No. 1 overall defense in the NFL.
Raheem Morris now takes over as the DC on Sean McVay’s staff but he won’t be overhauling what worked so well in L.A. last year. The Rams will keep mostly the same structure on defense, maintaining the system that Staley put in place.
Morris will undoubtedly add his own wrinkles and mix things up a bit, but don’t expect major changes. Leonard Floyd was asked this week whether the scheme is different under Morris and he seems pleased that it’s mostly the same.
“No, I feel like it’s the same,” he said. “Just touching up on some plays that we could’ve run better as a defense. But yeah, pretty much the same.”
The Rams were first in total yards allowed, points against, first downs allowed and passing defense last season, completely shutting down just about every team they faced. They gave up more than 28 points just once and held their opponents to 10 points or fewer five times.
Floyd had a career year with 10.5 sacks and 11 tackles for a loss, so he should be happy to be playing a similar role to the one he held in 2020.