Tag: rams offseason

Rams add veteran Boston Scott to loaded running back room

The Rams are adding Boston Scott at running back, giving them a veteran presence in that position group

If the 1-2 punch of Kyren Williams and Blake Corum wasn’t enough to excite Rams fans, NFL veteran Boston Scott is the latest addition to the running back room in LA.

The Rams are signing Scott to a one-year deal, according to Adam Schefter.

Originally drafted by New Orleans, he eventually found his way to Philadelphia during his rookie year and has spent the last six seasons with the Eagles.

A rotational back for majority of his career, Scott saw limited opportunities last season due to the Eagles’ usage of D’Andre Swift and Kenneth Gainwell. However, Scott has contributed in variety of ways, serving the team as a player and locker room leader.

For a team like the Rams who suffered several injuries in the running back room over the past three seasons, including stints on IR by Williams, Ronnie Rivers and Cam Akers, Scott is a presence that will be felt in more ways than one.

Scott’s ability to get needed yards, along with his skills as a pass protector will gift him playing time but his true value will come in the mentorship and insight a veteran like him provides to a young running back room.

Scott turned 29 in April and with only 302 career rushing attempts, there’s still a lot of tread left on his tires.

Rams could benefit from an early run on quarterbacks in the NFL draft

As many as six quarterbacks could go in the top 15 picks, which is good news for the Rams

As the NFL gears up for the annual draft, teams are settling in and finalizing their draft boards. With players participating in various pro days, front offices have had a final opportunity to take a close look at prospects and sometimes those in-depth looks change the mindset and priorities of franchises.

As made evident by the New York Jets’ 2021 draft, many had Justin Fields mocked to the team with their second overall selection. With Trevor Lawrence already set to be drafted by the Jaguars and the need for a quarterback being ever-pressing, the Jets and Fields felt like a natural partnership. However, an outstanding performance by Zach Wilson at his pro day sent the BYU gunslinger to New York and Fields to Chicago.

Wilson should serve as a warning in investing too much thought into a player’s pro day and it did until Will Levis fell out of the first despite his solid pro day and in his limited time with Tennessee, he has shown tremendous talent and is the Titans’ projected starter in 2024.

Teams will be willing to spend some capital for a quarterback and with the history of early runs on rookie quarterbacks throughout all three days of the draft, trends are changing and the Rams are in a position to benefit.

As they sit at No. 19 overall, there are several teams that need quarterbacks and for those that have only a temporary solution at the position, they may trade up for their passer of the future.

Expected first-round quarterbacks include Caleb Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy and Bo Nix. Potentially Spencer Rattler could throw himself into the mix as well.

So how does this help the Rams? Considering the Rams don’t have an immediate need at the position, that’s six or seven selections at a position that probably isn’t a priority to Los Angeles. That will also push back several top talents, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

With the projected selections of Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Joe Alt, Olu Fashanu, Rome Odunze, Brock Bowers, Terrion Arnold and Dallas Turner inside the top 15, that’s fifteen prospects that the Rams have almost no shot of acquiring – meaning there could be a potential drop in projected targets.

Top talents like Nate Wiggins, Chop Robinson, Byron Murphy II, Jer’Zhan Newton and Brian Thomas Jr. could become available to the Rams despite their top 15 guys likely being off the board. Offensive tackles like Aramius Mims, Taliese Fuaga, Tyler Guyton and Graham Barton could be available, as well.

As the talent pool increases with every QB selection, there’s also another element in play. The Bills just traded away Stefon Diggs. If the Rams selection comes up and there’s a quality receiver available, perhaps a draft day trade with Buffalo is in the realm of possibility.

Long story short, the more QBs drafted before pick 19, the better. The Rams are on the verge of something special and the desperation of others could bring a fruitful harvest for GM Les Snead and the organization.

Rams should bring back UFL’s Luis Perez as emergency QB

With QB injuries on the rise in the NFL, here’s why the Rams should look to an old friend to be an emergency plan.

The story of Luis Perez is known, yet still not known enough. As a member of the 2024 Arlington Renegades, Perez is entering only his 11th year of playing quarterback. To put that in perspective, if a person started playing football in 4th grade, that player would be in their sophomore year of college.

A truly remarkable story, Perez learned how to play quarterback by watching YouTube videos before walking on at Southwestern College in his hometown of Chula Vista, California. After starting out as No. 9 on the QB depth chart, Perez would be the starter by Week 3 of his first year. After two dominant years with Southwestern, Perez would transfer to Texas A&M-Commerce, a Division II school located in a town of 9,090 people.

Perez would continue to shine, leading Texas A&M-Commerce to a DII National Championship behind his 5,001 passing yards and 46 touchdowns. It’s the only NCAA national title in school history.

The Rams eventually took a chance on Perez in 2018 after he impressed in minicamp. Signed for the preseason, Perez saw only limited action in the Rams’ final preseason game before he was sent to the practice squad. Perez would be released weeks later.

When asked about Luis Perez, Sean McVay had this to say in 2018.

“Really impressive. He’s got a natural stroke too, really has a good feel for picking things up,” McVay said.

Since leaving the Rams, Perez has become a spring football legend. Having started games in the AAF, XFL, USFL and now the UFL, he’s one of a select few to have played in at least three different football leagues. After a poor start to the 2023 season with the Vegas Vipers, Perez was traded midseason to the Arlington Renegades.

In typical Perez fashion, he was named a starter through injury and snuck the Renegades into the playoffs. Perez would then lead Arlington to upset the 7-3 Houston Roughnecks before upsetting the 9-1 D.C. Defenders in the XFL championship game. He was named game MVP.

Perez is perfect for spring football but perhaps he could serve the Rams in the future. In 2020, Josh McCown was signed to be the Texans’ third-string QB. McCown never left his house.

There’s a way to have Perez serve as the emergency fourth-string QB and the Rams should do it. Now, the likelihood of a fourth-string QB having an opportunity to play is rare but not impossible. The 2022 49ers used four quarterbacks due to injury so there’s a precedent for it.

A team can never be too prepared but with a starting QB in Matthew Stafford and a backup in Jimmy Garoppolo, the Rams’ number one and two gunslingers each have a long history of injury and both missed time last year due to it.

Perez understands the basic concepts of the McVay offense, he’s a known hard worker, he’s a veteran and he’s cheap. He’s been thrown into the fire, both on the field and in his personal desires, and he made it to the other side. It’s a smart precaution but one that should be made.

Despite rocky special teams play, Sean McVay is fully confident in Chase Blackburn

Rams head coach publicly supported his special teams coach Chase Blackburn despite calls for removal from fans.

Sean McVay stood 10 toes down when questioned about his special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn at the Rams’ Thursday press conference. Despite the multitude of poor play and failures from the Rams’ special teams unit in 2023, McVay continues to believe in Blackburn, citing Blackburn’s “accountability and ownership” as reasons for his return in 2024.

Evaluating more than just the results, McVay is keen to surround Blackburn with better players, thus giving the Rams a better possibility to improve in the special teams aspect of football.

“I believe in Chase and what I think I saw is that in the midst of a lot of those things, you’re evaluating not just the results, but the process and what the week looks like and the way that those players continue to believe in him,” he said. “And then you’re saying, ‘Alright, where are some of the things that we can identify to improve?’ And I do think there’s the solutions from Chase and from being able to play better, to be able to tackle better, to be able to consistently figure out, alright, where can we take the next steps? But you look at some of the different things that we had to navigate with new players at key and critical spots and I appreciated just how steady he was in what was a challenging year.”

Blackburn was dealt a bad hand with a young roster and a team that was still trying to get out of the position they put themselves in during GM Les Snead’s “F them picks” campaign. With a year under his belt, new players heading his way and the support from his head coach, Blackburn has a new life to properly develop as a coach and build a special teams unit to mirror the success of former special teams coordinator John Fassell.

To help Blackburn, the Rams have hired Chili Davis as special teams assistant coach, replacing the outgoing Jeremy Springer, who took a promotion with the Patriots.

Davis has over 10 years of coaching experience and fitting with Sean McVay’s love of college coaches, this will be Davis’ first pro job. Coming from Kansas State, Davis’ entire coaching history is with the special teams and when asked about his hire, Sean McVay stated that he’s “really excited” about working with Davis.

With a fresh start, perhaps 2024 may be Blackburn’s year to break out as one of the NFL’s premier special teams coordinators.

Rams sign 4 more players to reserve/futures deals

The Rams signed four more players to reserve/futures contracts, including WR Xavier Smith

After their season ended, the Los Angeles Rams signed 10 players to reserve/futures contracts, including former third-round pick, Logan Bruss. On Tuesday, they added four more players to their offseason roster by signing them to reserve/futures deals, too.

That brings the total to 14 players from the practice squad who will remain with the Rams through the early stages of the offseason, a sign that Los Angeles wants to continue developing them this spring and potentially into the summer.

The four players signed on Tuesday were tight ends Miller Forristall and Nikola Kalinic, as well as offensive lineman Grant Miller and wideout Xavier Smith. They all spent time on the practice squad this season.

Ranking Rams’ offseason additions by potential impact in 2023

Excluding draft picks, we ranked the Rams’ offseason additions based on their potential impact in 2023

It was a relatively quiet offseason for the Rams this year, essentially sitting out the first few months of free agency. They let plenty of players walk, including David Edwards and Nick Scott, limiting the number of additions they’ve made up to this point.

They have been more active in the last two months, however, bringing in players such as Ahkello Witherspoon, Sony Michel and Demarcus Robinson.

Looking back at the Rams’ (few) offseason additions, we ranked them based on their potential impact – from best to worst. This exercise excludes draft picks and undrafted rookies, limiting it to just free-agent signings, waiver claims and trade acquisitions.

Rams earn grade of D- for departure-filled offseason

The Rams earned a near-failing grade for their tumultuous offseason, which was all about departures

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There isn’t a team in the NFL that has made fewer additions this offseason than the Los Angeles Rams. That’s because they still have yet to sign a single free agent. The only non-draft additions to this roster are Hunter Long, who was acquired in the Jalen Ramsey trade with the Dolphins, and Vincent Gray, who was claimed off waivers from the Saints this week. That’s it.

On the flip side, they’ve lost Ramsey, Leonard Floyd, Bobby Wagner, Allen Robinson, Nick Scott, Greg Gaines, A’Shawn Robinson, Taylor Rapp, David Long Jr. and David Edwards. See the contrast?

In no way did the Rams get better this offseason. That doesn’t mean they won’t have a better record than they did in 2022, but the roster itself has certainly not improved.

Gilberto Manzano of Sports Illustrated has been unimpressed by the Rams’ moves this spring and he appropriately gave them a terrible grade on his NFC West report card. He gave the Rams a D- for their offseason so far, expecting another losing season from Los Angeles.

Outside of creating cap space for next season, the Rams didn’t do much for this year’s team. McVay will likely use the underdog role to motivate his inexperienced roster, and they’ll probably win a few games with Stafford, Kupp and Donald still there. Perhaps the rookie class will show enough flashes throughout the season to become building blocks for the future. But expect the Rams to endure back-to-back losing seasons after winning the Super Bowl, as they might find themselves in the race for Williams and Maye by Halloween. 

The Rams aren’t necessarily looking to compete this season. They’re using 2023 as a reset year before likely getting more aggressive next offseason with an abundance of cap space and a first-round pick (yes, really!). Of course, they could choose to trade that first-rounder for a proven veteran as they have so many times before, but with their new shift in mentality from the “F them picks” era, they’ll probably hold onto that pick.

If they’re bad enough in 2023, they could even find themselves in contention for the top two quarterbacks, Caleb Williams or Drake Maye, as Manzano mentioned.

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Ranking Rams’ 13 offseason departures, from least to most significant

The Rams have already lost 13 players this offseason, but some departures are more painful than others

The Rams’ roster is going to look very different than it did in 2022, and not because they’ve gone out and added a bunch of new players. They’ve suffered 13 departures already this offseason, either in free agency or by cutting and trading players.

Obviously, some losses are more significant than others. For instance, Matthew Orzech wasn’t nearly as impactful as Jalen Ramsey was, so losing him won’t be as painful as trading Ramsey was.

Now that we’re three weeks into the new league year, here’s a ranking of the Rams’ biggest offseason departures, from least to most significant.

Rams’ 8 biggest questions entering 2023 offseason

After a season that fell way short of expectations, the Rams now face several questions in the upcoming offseason

After the shortest offseason in NFL history last year, the Los Angeles Rams will have an extra month to prepare for next season following their 5-12 campaign that left them way short of a playoff berth. It’s going to be a very long offseason in L.A., both literally and figuratively.

Not even a week removed from their season-ending loss to the Seahawks, there are already questions about the future of this team – beginning with head coach Sean McVay. With cap concerns and a lack of draft capital, getting back to the playoffs in 2023 could be a challenge.

Here are the eight biggest questions facing the Rams this spring and summer.

Check out photos from Rams’ first day of 2022 OTAs

The Rams held their first practice of OTAs on Monday, giving fans a look at Allen Robinson, Bobby Wagner and the rest of the team

The Los Angeles Rams got a late start on their offseason this year after playing into the middle of February – not that they’ll complain about the extra work leading to a Super Bowl ring. It doesn’t feel like that long ago they were hoisting the Lombardi Trophy at SoFi Stadium, yet here they are already beginning OTAs.

They kicked things off on Monday in Thousand Oaks, holding their first practice of OTAs. Allen Robinson, Bobby Wagner, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and the Rams’ rookies were on the field in jerseys and helmets, going through individual drills and 7-on-7 sessions – without hitting, of course.

Check out some of the best photos from Day 1 of OTAs as the Rams continue their preparation for the 2022 season.