I don’t necessarily think he’s playing the defense because McVays preferred a certain one but rather because he’s got one of the lowest paid younger defensive teams in the NFL. It’s all about how you spend the money. If all the money is invested on the offensive side of the ball that limits what you can do defensively. Rams need to invest some draft capital on that side of the ball if they want a good defense. They have been letting people go and filling slots with younger but not necessarily better players. The secondary has not had a premium round pick added in years. You get what you pay for and the Rams backend is short on talent. The offense can cover up some of those shortcomings but you’re only as good as the players you’re playing. Give that defense a LB that can run and tackle, a safety who can run and cover and a couple of corners who can press and you will have a top tier defense.Rams have the draft and cap capital. Let’s do something about defense and special teams.
shula...
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So they couldn't have spent say $10 million on defense instead of a WR that caught a handful of passes? They also made a concerted effort to build this way and signed vets on offense but didn't spend money on defense.
I am having an open and honest conversation with myself (yes I may need professional help).
I would have been ecstatic but shocked if the Rams and their subpar defense won 4 road games to win another Lombardi. There are probably injuries involved but this defense went from a top 10 defense to a bottom 10 defense as the season progressed. I’d say only Turner, Curl and (maybe) Poona maintained their level of play throughout the season. And there were 0 “closers” (e.g. AD) at the end. That’s not how you win a SB. That has to eat at McSnead in the off season and be addressed aggressively with an eye on some “hungry dogs” that will establish their will on offenses.
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I would have been ecstatic but shocked if the Rams and their subpar defense won 4 road games to win another Lombardi. There are probably injuries involved but this defense went from a top 10 defense to a bottom 10 defense as the season progressed. I’d say only Turner, Curl and (maybe) Poona maintained their level of play throughout the season. And there were 0 “closers” (e.g. AD) at the end. That’s not how you win a SB. That has to eat at McSnead in the off season and be addressed aggressively with an eye on some “hungry dogs” that will establish their will on offenses.
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It is 100% on everybody I said the same thing after losses and I never heard the end of it either. They chose as a team to not put any vets they had to pay on defense. Instead they paid guys like Adams and Atwell. We aren't where we were without Adams but the point still stands. People can make any excuse they want but the fact is our offense cost three times what the defense is. Maybe a little more balance and we're a better team but maybe not.
Yeah I mentioned this during the game last night - better be spending a large chunk of our resources on defense/st.
I like his defensive philosophy/approach. Tend to prefer DCs who want to get the fuck off the field quickly. But Shula's defense was better than Schwartz this past year in points against. And he did that with a JAG corner room.
So what does it look like if you give him capable corners.
Shula's unit is gonna get some TLC this offseason. Bank it.
I do wish we would have blitzed more - feels like the only game we blizted a lot was Tampa Bay and we fucked them up good.
However when your corners are avg players at best - you can understand why the coaches don't want to be sending the blitz.
However when your corners are avg players at best - you can understand why the coaches don't want to be sending the blitz.
yeah i heard the rams gave up 40% scoring on all drives over the same period - worse in the league.
Curious where you get this thought from, or why you think that's the case?
The Rams' 2025 defensive stats against the run were better than in 2024.
Fewer total yards rushing (1,884 vs. 2,210), fewer rushing touchdowns allowed (8 vs. 13) and
less yards-per-rush (4.3 in 2025 vs. 4.6 in 2024)
The sack totals for the top-four pass rushers (Verse, Young, Turner and Fiske) were almost identical but 2025 was just a tad higher (29.5 vs. 28.5 in 2024). Even the Team sacks were higher this year (47 vs. 38).
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There's more feelings than stats or facts going around about the D. Yes they regressed but aside from our secondary it's not nearly as bad as is being cited.
Im referring to our players from last year. Puna and landman are big reasons our run d excelled. The pass rush is a wash. So it didn't get better
... I was truly torn between this one (two of my favorite actors) and the original Joe Friday ... Jack Webb
Boy, that really says it all, doesn't it?
Other OCs found the weaknesses and exploited the absolute hell out of them. And with a room full of bad corners, they were able to.
Goddammit.
That's one thing I miss big about Staley as DC. More than any other year in the McVay era, that D seemed to get 3-n-outs a lot. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he had AD in the front end and Jalen Ramsey at his absolute peak on the back end.
But yeah, but that bend-don't-break shit. Make shit happen get your D off the field.
I just have to push-back once more.
While I agree that Landman and Ford were a huge part of the Rams' improved run defense, the four primary pass rushers were also a big part of that improvement.
As to the pass rush, I don't see it as a wash.
47 vs. 38 is an improvement of almost 24%.
I also took the time to do some quick division ... sacks compared to pass attempts (including sacks) ... and ...
in 2024, the Rams sacked the QB 6.55% of attempts + sacks
in 2025, that improved to 7.4%
I did not look into Hurries or QB Hits
Yes. It's a team building philosophy and preferred scheme issue.
The evidence of this is the utter lack of premium draft picks used on the CB position. No 1st or 2nd round picks used on the position in 9 years, and only one 3rd round pick. That's one pick out of 24 premium picks.
Think about it: they've survived, even thrived, with a Fangio style soft zone with mediocre talent that has been very INEXPENSIVE relative to other prioritized positions. (They've gone cheap even after factoring in Ramsey.)
If you change scheme or philosophy, it gets way more expensive in draft capital and/or money.
The injury to Witherspoon threw everything into a tailspin. Before the injury, Witherspoon was shutting down the top WR’s on each team. Look at the first game against Seattle and what he did to JSN. However, after the injury the defense no longer had one shutdown CB and when Witherspoon came back, he wasn’t the same.