Jalen Ramsey has been the cornerstone of the Rams secondary since he was acquired in a trade with the Jaguars in 2019, but the Rams have had a number of different cornerbacks line up with him. Troy Hill, Nickell Robey-Coleman, David Long Jr., Darious Williams, Robert Rochell and Dont’e Deayon are among them, each getting an opportunity to start at some point in the last three years.
This season, Williams is gone and Hill is back, but there’s a host of young talent in the secondary after the arrivals of Decobie Durant and Derion Kendrick – two rookie corners with good upside. It’s still early in camp, but Ramsey likes what he’s seen from the cornerback group as a whole, singling out Durant as a highly athletic defender.
But most importantly, he likes the depth the Rams have at corner, knowing how often injuries occur.
“He’s a competitor. He’s sneaky, sneaky super athletic. He’s very smart. He wants to soak up a lot of knowledge,” Ramsey said this week. “But honestly, not just him, that’s everybody. Him, DK continuing to develop and help school them. Like, y’all saw last year, we went through a lot of injuries where guys couldn’t play in certain games or guys had COVID like myself and other guys had to step up. I think every corner who was active on our roster played at some point last year. Having the depth like that and guys we can really trust, I hate when I hear like on a broadcast or something, ‘They’re really missing this guy or they’re really missing that guy.’ I hate that. I like when it’s kind of seamless. Like, yeah, maybe there’s like a top dog, right? But then everybody else right under that is like all at a steady level, which is an extremely high level of playing the position. So that’s kind of the goal for our whole unit.”
Ramsey and Hill are expected to be the two starters at cornerback when the Rams are in their base defense, but Long, Rochell, Durant and Kendrick could all contribute, too – even if everyone does stay healthy.
The Rams like to mix things up in the secondary and if someone begins to step up, they’ll get more opportunities with the starting defense.