The Los Angeles Rams seem to be in pretty good shape heading into 2025, as they went 10-4 over their last 14 games this past year to establish themselves as serious NFC ontenders.
However, it’s pretty clear that the Rams have room for improvement.
Zoltan Buday of Pro Football Focus has revealed that he thinks Los Angeles should prioritize improving its linebacking corps this offseason.
“Linebacker may not be a top priority for the Rams, given their recent roster-building approach, but it’s a position they could—and should—address,” Buday wrote. “The unit struggled, particularly in the divisional round, where Rams linebackers had trouble fitting the run and containing Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.”
The Eagles gashed the Rams for 285 yards on the ground in the playoffs, which marked the second time Philadelphia knifed through Los Angeles’ run defense during the campaign.
Back during a regular-season meeting on Nov. 24, the Eagles racked up 314 rushing yards against the Rams.
“Reflecting how the Rams devalue the position and often play with light boxes, only one of their linebackers played at least 500 snaps in the 2024 regular season,” Buday added. “That lone player, Christian Rozeboom, logged 828 snaps but finished just 45th among them in PFF overall grade (59.0).”
Funny thing about Rozeboom is that he is slated to hit free agency, so Los Angeles will have to address the position whether it wants to or not.
The Rams do have a very nice stable of young pass rushers led by Kobie Turner, Jared Verse and Byron Young, but they ranked just 22nd in run defense this past season.
Much of that had to do with the fact that Los Angeles’ linebackers were largely unathletic, so the Rams could absolutely stand to add a more versatile player at the position.
Los Angeles is projected to have a fair amount of cap space going into free agency, so it should be able to land an impact player at linebacker. Plus, inside linebackers typically aren’t very expensive in today’s game, so the Rams wouldn’t even have to expend a whole lot of money there.