Terrell Burgess and Taylor Rapp are under the spotlight in the Rams’ search for a new starting safety after John Johnson left in free agency, but Nick Scott played some good football last season as the team’s third safety and is making some noise in camp.
He caught the attention of both Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay on Tuesday for a play he made at the end of practice. He picked off the Rams’ starting quarterback on a deep pass to Robert Woods, cutting underneath the route for the interception.
Safety Nick Scott with a pick off Stafford. Attempting to hit Woods on a deep corner route. Burgess in coverage and Scott undercut the route and made a great play. @LAFBNetwork
— Ryan Dyrud (@RyanDyrudLAFB) August 3, 2021
There’s no video of the play, but it garnered some praise from Stafford afterwards.
“Nick Scott, what a play at the end,” Stafford said. “That was as good a play I’ve been around in the safety spot. Happy that he’s on our team. Don’t want to turn it over, but that was a great play.”
McVay has been pleased with the play of his secondary thus far, and he also highlighted Scott’s interception in his post-practice press conference.
“We’re doing a lot of different things, a lot of different personnel groupings and thought it was a real positive and we’re getting our hands on the ball and we’re catching it,” he said. “You see Nick Scott makes a big play at the end there, ‘Double D’ (Donte Deayon) makes a good breakup, guys consistently showing up. Darious Williams had a good breakup and in of the kind of the pass-game settings and I was really pleased with that group today.”
Scott is likely still behind Burgess and Rapp at safety, as well as Jordan Fuller, but having him as a backup is invaluable for the Rams. In the event of injury, which Fuller, Rapp and Burgess have all suffered, Scott gives the defense another reliable option in the secondary.