The Los Angeles Rams addressed the safety position in a big way last offseason, signing Eric Weddle as a free agent before selecting Taylor Rapp with their first pick in the draft. The result was a safety group flush with top-tier talent and depth, which the Rams needed after John Johnson suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 6.
The depth at that position doesn’t look so great now after Eric Weddle announced his retirement on Thursday. The Rams knew they probably wouldn’t have Weddle back in 2020 after he made it clear that he didn’t want to be a backup, so this wasn’t exactly shocking news to the team.
However, Los Angeles doesn’t have much proven talent under contract behind Johnson and Rapp, who are expected to be the starters. In fact, most fans probably couldn’t name the Rams’ two primary backup safeties right now.
Nick Scott and Jake Gervase are the only backups under contract for 2020, which doesn’t instill much confidence at that spot. Combined, they played 28 defensive snaps last season – 15 for Scott and 13 for Gervase.
Marqui Christian, who was the No. 3 safety behind Weddle and Rapp, played 371 defensive snaps but will be a free agent this offseason. With Weddle retired, re-signing Christian just became that much more important.
That won’t be difficult to do considering the Rams just gained $5.25 million in salary cap space with Weddle’s retirement, money that can be used to keep Christian and possibly Greg Zuerlein, too.
But even if Christian is back, the Rams could use another safety on the roster. Gervase doesn’t have much experience and Scott is more of a special teams player than a defensive back at this point in his career.
Signing a free agent like Darian Thompson or Jayron Kearse would give the Rams another player with NFL experience behind Rapp and Johnson, in the event that an injury occurs. Christian isn’t a traditional safety, either, playing more of a hybrid role at linebacker.
This isn’t to say the Rams should make safety a top priority this offseason, but they also can’t afford to ignore the position and go into the year with Scott and Gervase as the primary backups.