Free agency and the draft came and went, and yet the only addition the Los Angeles Rams made at inside linebacker came in the seventh round when they selected Clay Johnston out of Baylor. And even that wasn’t much of a move to bolster one of the weakest units on the roster, considering Johnston is coming off a torn ACL suffered in October.
The Rams’ reluctance to bring in linebacker help after losing Cory Littleton in free agency has been somewhat surprising, but there are a few reasons for it. Not only do they put little value in the inside linebacker position, but they also have the defensive backs to help fill the roles of linebackers in the middle of the defense.
Most of their approach stems from the front office’s perceived value of linebackers, which continues a trend that began when Wade Phillips came to Los Angeles in 2017.
Dating back to his time in Denver, Phillips rarely made inside linebacker a high priority in his 3-4 schemes. The Broncos didn’t break the bank or spend high draft picks on inside linebackers when Phillips was there, rolling with the likes of Todd Davis, Danny Trevathan and Brandon Marshall.
In Los Angeles, the Rams traded away Alec Ogletree after extending him, and were content with Cory Littleton and Mark Barron as their inside linebackers. Littleton was undrafted and Barron was a former safety-turned-linebacker.
New Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley never coached under Phillips, but it seems Staley and the Rams see eye-to-eye on the value of linebackers.
Rather than paying up to keep Littleton in Los Angeles, the Rams let him leave in free agency. He signed a three-year, $35.25 million deal with the Raiders, which included only $22 million guaranteed. Essentially, it was a two-year deal worth $11 million per season – very affordable, even by the Rams’ standards.
The Rams chose to put their money elsewhere. They re-signed Michael Brockers to a three-year deal worth $24 million, and gave A’Shawn Robinson $17 million for two years. Leonard Floyd also signed a $10 million deal for the 2020 season.
Whether they were smart to let Littleton leave is up for debate, but their secondary has a lot to do with that decision. Last season, Littleton was the only linebacker to play more than 27% of the defensive snaps. He hardly ever came off the field, staying out there for 93.8% of the plays.
The reason Los Angeles was able to get by with really only one starting linebacker is the depth it had at safety. Taylor Rapp and Eric Weddle handled the bulk of the snaps once John Johnson was lost for the year, but Marqui Christian played 33.5% of the time, too. He was the third safety on the field in “big nickel” and dime sets, essentially playing the role of a second linebacker. Rapp also took on that responsibility at times, too.
The Rams’ selections in the draft this year suggest they plan to keep using three-safety sets often, using players such as Terrell Burgess and Jordan Fuller to fill that role. Burgess and Fuller can both play free safety, which will allow Johnson and Rapp to play closer to the line of scrimmage as a linebacker would.
That personnel grouping is much more effective against the pass than a traditional 3-4 package would be, getting five or six defensive backs on the field. Granted, it does leave the Rams somewhat susceptible to the run, but Rapp and Johnson are both excellent tacklers, and Burgess is no slouch in that area, either.
Nickel packages have become the new base defense in the NFL, and that holds true with the Rams. We know they’ll be using a lot of five- and six-DB sets, but who will be the linebackers? That’s an entirely different question that’s far tougher to answer.
The candidates are Micah Kiser, Travin Howard, Kenny Young and Troy Reeder. Kiser has the inside track to a starting job, since he was set to be the second linebacker next to Littleton last season before injuring his pec, but he’s far from a lock to sit atop the depth chart in September.
Howard saw his playing time increase down the stretch last year, while Young is a former starter for the Ravens. Reeder played the second-most snaps of any Rams inside linebacker last year, but he looked overmatched and was terrible in coverage.
Altogether, those four players have 14 combined starts, and only eight with the Rams (all by Reeder). It’s a group Les Snead called “very inexperienced,” but one he likes the potential of.
The Rams are clearly taking a pretty significant risk at linebacker in 2020, but it’s mostly because of how frequently they use nickel and dime packages, which takes one linebacker off the field. As long as one player steps up as a reliable starter next season, the Rams should be OK in the middle of their defense. But if they all falter, the second level of L.A.’s defense will be a massive weakness.
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