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Marcus Peters since Week 9...
- By Stl2La
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 60 Replies
The Rams will hope that Marcus Peters keeps up his late-season performance against the deep ball
BY PAUL DUNCAN • JAN 17, 2019
Marcus Peters had a rough start to his first season with the Los Angeles Rams. Through the first nine weeks of the season, he allowed the second-most receiving yards (591), the second-most touchdown receptions (six), the fifth-highest passer rating on throws into his overage (145.2) and he earned the fourth-worst coverage grade (39.9) among cornerbacks in that span. However, the last seven weeks were another story, as he earned the eighth-highest coverage grade among cornerbacks (80.1) from Week 10 to Week 17 and he allowed the seventh-lowest passer rating on throws into his primary coverage (52.9).
There are many reasons for this. One, he was further removed from a calf injury that limited him after Week 3. More interestingly though, is how drastically he improved against the deep ball.
During the early part of the season, Peters got torched for deep touchdowns by everyone from Michael Thomas to David Moore. He is traditionally a very aggressive corner, and teams recognized and took advantage of that. Over the first nine weeks, nine of Peters’ 47 targets came on passes of at least 20 yards downfield, and he allowed eight of those passes to be caught for 315 receiving yards and five touchdowns, which yielded a perfect passer rating of 158.3. It came to a head in Weeks 8 and 9, where he had to shadow Davante Adams and Michael Thomas in back to back weeks. Combined, he allowed 161 receiving yards from four deep passes, and he consequently ended those games with overall grades of 46.1 and 36.9, respectively.
Things changed significantly after his bye week, as his biggest weakness became his biggest strength. From Week 10 to Week 17, quarterbacks throwing deep against him completed none of their seven attempts, while Peters intercepted two of those passes. All told, opposing quarterbacks fielded a 0.0 passer rating on their deep passes against Peters in that span.
The Saints know they will need to attack the secondary in order to compete with the Ram’s equally explosive offense, so Marcus Peters has to be at his best for the Rams to stay competitive. After Michael Thomas torched him for seven catches, 146 yards and a touchdown in their last meeting, all eyes will be on Marcus Peters to see who takes the gumbo after the Conference Championship.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...late-season-performance-against-the-deep-ball
BY PAUL DUNCAN • JAN 17, 2019
Marcus Peters had a rough start to his first season with the Los Angeles Rams. Through the first nine weeks of the season, he allowed the second-most receiving yards (591), the second-most touchdown receptions (six), the fifth-highest passer rating on throws into his overage (145.2) and he earned the fourth-worst coverage grade (39.9) among cornerbacks in that span. However, the last seven weeks were another story, as he earned the eighth-highest coverage grade among cornerbacks (80.1) from Week 10 to Week 17 and he allowed the seventh-lowest passer rating on throws into his primary coverage (52.9).
There are many reasons for this. One, he was further removed from a calf injury that limited him after Week 3. More interestingly though, is how drastically he improved against the deep ball.
During the early part of the season, Peters got torched for deep touchdowns by everyone from Michael Thomas to David Moore. He is traditionally a very aggressive corner, and teams recognized and took advantage of that. Over the first nine weeks, nine of Peters’ 47 targets came on passes of at least 20 yards downfield, and he allowed eight of those passes to be caught for 315 receiving yards and five touchdowns, which yielded a perfect passer rating of 158.3. It came to a head in Weeks 8 and 9, where he had to shadow Davante Adams and Michael Thomas in back to back weeks. Combined, he allowed 161 receiving yards from four deep passes, and he consequently ended those games with overall grades of 46.1 and 36.9, respectively.
Things changed significantly after his bye week, as his biggest weakness became his biggest strength. From Week 10 to Week 17, quarterbacks throwing deep against him completed none of their seven attempts, while Peters intercepted two of those passes. All told, opposing quarterbacks fielded a 0.0 passer rating on their deep passes against Peters in that span.
The Saints know they will need to attack the secondary in order to compete with the Ram’s equally explosive offense, so Marcus Peters has to be at his best for the Rams to stay competitive. After Michael Thomas torched him for seven catches, 146 yards and a touchdown in their last meeting, all eyes will be on Marcus Peters to see who takes the gumbo after the Conference Championship.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...late-season-performance-against-the-deep-ball
How Aaron Kromer has Rams offensive line surging at precisely the right time
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 37 Replies
https://www.dailynews.com/2019/01/1...ive-line-surging-at-precisely-the-right-time/
How Aaron Kromer has Rams offensive line surging at precisely the right time
His emphasis on communication has helped the unit pave the way to success
By RYAN KARTJE
Photo by Andy Holzman
Aaron Kromer was mid-flight, somewhere between New Orleans and San Francisco, when his best shot at an NFL head coaching job slipped away, unbeknownst to him.
It was January 2012, and the Saints were set to play the 49ers that Sunday in the divisional round. In his third season as the Saints offensive line coach, Kromer had built one of the NFL’s most stalwart fronts. His impressive work garnered the attention of teams around the league, none more so than the St. Louis Rams, who reached out to schedule an interview for their head coaching vacancy.
But the interview, set for the next day in San Francisco, was cancelled before Kromer’s plane landed. When Rams executives arrived, there were messages waiting from the coach they’d already offered the position. Jeff Fisher had accepted the job.
Through the tumultuous few years that came after that, Kromer continued on as offensive line coach, plugging away through the Bountygate chaos in New Orleans, through locker room unrest in Chicago and an off-the-field incident in Buffalo, until an opportunity finally arose to join the team for which he was meant to interview, four years before.
Now, as the Rams stand on the brink of a Super Bowl berth, no assistant is more crucial to the L.A. offense than Kromer, whose offensive line has been one of the best in the league again this season.
No team has graded better in run blocking than the Rams, according to Pro Football Focus, while only four teams have graded better in pass-blocking situations. With the Saints dominant defensive front on tap, no unit is arguably more vital to the Rams offensive success in Sunday’s NFC championship game than the line.
Never was that more apparent than last week’s playoff victory over the Cowboys. The Rams offensive line dominated the Cowboys’ ferocious front seven, steamrolling them for a season-high 273 rushing yards. It was a tour de force performance for the Rams line, which found a way to exploit every imaginable vulnerability in a Cowboys defensive line that hadn’t otherwise showed any all season.
“Coach Kromer was definitely the center point of all that happening,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said.
The foundation for such a performance – and the masterful gameplan that preceded it – was forged two years before, when Kromer arrived in L.A. to inherit one of the league’s worst offensive lines. That offseason, the Rams signed veterans in Whitworth and center John Sullivan to fortify the front – two signings that would help change the entire culture of the team. But the most important shift up front was more subtle than that.
Kromer knew from experience that any unit that struggled to communicate was doomed to fail. During his final season in New Orleans, as the team tried to stay afloat amid suspensions to Asshole Face and other coaches stemming from Bountygate, Kromer was named interim coach for six games. The Saints lost their first four games under his watch, as Kromer scrambled to deal with a chaotic situation.
“The difficult part was the situation more than the job,” Kromer said. “The coach was suspended, and he was coming back, and (interim coach) Joe Vitt was coming back, too. I hadn’t coached the preseason. The continuity was not there.”
From the start, Kromer set a different tone in the Rams offensive line room. He encourages constant conversation, with different linemen constantly chiming in on what they see.
“I don’t preach,” Kromer said. “We talk. We communicate. I think that’s where you can gain more knowledge about a defense, when you’re openly talking about it. Somebody might see something and think it means something, and it doesn’t. If they verbalize and don’t have to be afraid of being wrong, you can be right a lot more often. That’s the number-one thing. Guys are afraid in a lot of rooms to make a mistake. We want people to talk.”
Not every room is so simpatico. But in the Rams offensive line room, the conversation is “especially easy,” Kromer says. Most often, it’s led by Whitworth or Sullivan, both of whom are encyclopedic in their football knowledge. But “everyone feels comfortable contributing,” Sullivan says. Together, for hours every week, they search for exploitable tendencies on tape – in scheme, in technique, in pre-snap movements and everything in between – each sharing their thoughts amongst the group
“It’s an open forum,” Sullivan continued. “And because of that, everyone feels an ownership over what they’re doing.”
When the room studies an opposing team’s film, Kromer often goes from position to position on defense to explain why the play unfolds as it does, rather than outlining how. This notion is central to Kromer’s approach. “I’d never watched the safety to figure out an alignment before,” says rookie tackle Joe Noteboom. But in the room, Kromer is deliberate in explaining the precise machinations of a defense’s choices.
“If they don’t know why, they can’t make the adjustments,” Kromer says. “Everything is about why. The beauty is all the millennials want to know why. It works out perfectly.”
Last week, in the locker room following their win over the Cowboys, one of those millennial linemen offered some insight into exactly why the Rams’ plans to dominate Dallas’ defensive front worked so well. Right guard Austin Blythe told reporters after the game that the Rams offensive line had figured out specific tells that told them what the Cowboys front would do before they did it. With that knowledge, the Rams were able to run all over them.
The rest of the Rams line was less forthcoming when asked about it. “That’s a big part of what we do every week in the NFL,” Whitworth said – and Blythe clammed up when asked to explain his post-game evaluation. But even a cursory watch of last Saturday’s victory would suggest that the Rams’ offensive line had the Cowboys figured out from the start.
Recreating that masterful game plan, with a Super Bowl bid on the line, will be no easy task against a Saints defense that ranked third in the league in rush defense DVOA. But in the offensive line room, that conversation has been ongoing all week.
Without Kromer, his linemen say, it may never have gotten started.
“I can’t say enough about the job that Kromer’s done,” Whitworth said. “Really, just how amazing of a coach he’s been all season long. It never ceases to really amaze me. Every single week, it’s like something happens, whether it’s a high or a low – how he handles it, how he, really, directs our group. He’s a tremendous football coach and somebody in this league that I think deserves a ton of respect for the job he does.”
Perhaps, in light of his line’s tremendous play this season, that respect will lead to another job interview in the near future. Though, he’s not so sure about that.
“Guys that are calling pass plays get head coaching jobs,” Kromer said. “So if it happens, it happens.”
But with the underappreciated Rams front playing its best football of the season, that certainly seems like a conversation worth having.
“This is a great job I have with Sean McVay,” Kromer said. “He makes sense. Football makes sense. We learn so much together every day, and this team we’ve all put together, win, lose or draw, just working with these guys, it’s an ideal situation.”
How Aaron Kromer has Rams offensive line surging at precisely the right time
His emphasis on communication has helped the unit pave the way to success
By RYAN KARTJE
Photo by Andy Holzman
Aaron Kromer was mid-flight, somewhere between New Orleans and San Francisco, when his best shot at an NFL head coaching job slipped away, unbeknownst to him.
It was January 2012, and the Saints were set to play the 49ers that Sunday in the divisional round. In his third season as the Saints offensive line coach, Kromer had built one of the NFL’s most stalwart fronts. His impressive work garnered the attention of teams around the league, none more so than the St. Louis Rams, who reached out to schedule an interview for their head coaching vacancy.
But the interview, set for the next day in San Francisco, was cancelled before Kromer’s plane landed. When Rams executives arrived, there were messages waiting from the coach they’d already offered the position. Jeff Fisher had accepted the job.
Through the tumultuous few years that came after that, Kromer continued on as offensive line coach, plugging away through the Bountygate chaos in New Orleans, through locker room unrest in Chicago and an off-the-field incident in Buffalo, until an opportunity finally arose to join the team for which he was meant to interview, four years before.
Now, as the Rams stand on the brink of a Super Bowl berth, no assistant is more crucial to the L.A. offense than Kromer, whose offensive line has been one of the best in the league again this season.
No team has graded better in run blocking than the Rams, according to Pro Football Focus, while only four teams have graded better in pass-blocking situations. With the Saints dominant defensive front on tap, no unit is arguably more vital to the Rams offensive success in Sunday’s NFC championship game than the line.
Never was that more apparent than last week’s playoff victory over the Cowboys. The Rams offensive line dominated the Cowboys’ ferocious front seven, steamrolling them for a season-high 273 rushing yards. It was a tour de force performance for the Rams line, which found a way to exploit every imaginable vulnerability in a Cowboys defensive line that hadn’t otherwise showed any all season.
“Coach Kromer was definitely the center point of all that happening,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said.
The foundation for such a performance – and the masterful gameplan that preceded it – was forged two years before, when Kromer arrived in L.A. to inherit one of the league’s worst offensive lines. That offseason, the Rams signed veterans in Whitworth and center John Sullivan to fortify the front – two signings that would help change the entire culture of the team. But the most important shift up front was more subtle than that.
Kromer knew from experience that any unit that struggled to communicate was doomed to fail. During his final season in New Orleans, as the team tried to stay afloat amid suspensions to Asshole Face and other coaches stemming from Bountygate, Kromer was named interim coach for six games. The Saints lost their first four games under his watch, as Kromer scrambled to deal with a chaotic situation.
“The difficult part was the situation more than the job,” Kromer said. “The coach was suspended, and he was coming back, and (interim coach) Joe Vitt was coming back, too. I hadn’t coached the preseason. The continuity was not there.”
From the start, Kromer set a different tone in the Rams offensive line room. He encourages constant conversation, with different linemen constantly chiming in on what they see.
“I don’t preach,” Kromer said. “We talk. We communicate. I think that’s where you can gain more knowledge about a defense, when you’re openly talking about it. Somebody might see something and think it means something, and it doesn’t. If they verbalize and don’t have to be afraid of being wrong, you can be right a lot more often. That’s the number-one thing. Guys are afraid in a lot of rooms to make a mistake. We want people to talk.”
Not every room is so simpatico. But in the Rams offensive line room, the conversation is “especially easy,” Kromer says. Most often, it’s led by Whitworth or Sullivan, both of whom are encyclopedic in their football knowledge. But “everyone feels comfortable contributing,” Sullivan says. Together, for hours every week, they search for exploitable tendencies on tape – in scheme, in technique, in pre-snap movements and everything in between – each sharing their thoughts amongst the group
“It’s an open forum,” Sullivan continued. “And because of that, everyone feels an ownership over what they’re doing.”
When the room studies an opposing team’s film, Kromer often goes from position to position on defense to explain why the play unfolds as it does, rather than outlining how. This notion is central to Kromer’s approach. “I’d never watched the safety to figure out an alignment before,” says rookie tackle Joe Noteboom. But in the room, Kromer is deliberate in explaining the precise machinations of a defense’s choices.
“If they don’t know why, they can’t make the adjustments,” Kromer says. “Everything is about why. The beauty is all the millennials want to know why. It works out perfectly.”
Last week, in the locker room following their win over the Cowboys, one of those millennial linemen offered some insight into exactly why the Rams’ plans to dominate Dallas’ defensive front worked so well. Right guard Austin Blythe told reporters after the game that the Rams offensive line had figured out specific tells that told them what the Cowboys front would do before they did it. With that knowledge, the Rams were able to run all over them.
The rest of the Rams line was less forthcoming when asked about it. “That’s a big part of what we do every week in the NFL,” Whitworth said – and Blythe clammed up when asked to explain his post-game evaluation. But even a cursory watch of last Saturday’s victory would suggest that the Rams’ offensive line had the Cowboys figured out from the start.
Recreating that masterful game plan, with a Super Bowl bid on the line, will be no easy task against a Saints defense that ranked third in the league in rush defense DVOA. But in the offensive line room, that conversation has been ongoing all week.
Without Kromer, his linemen say, it may never have gotten started.
“I can’t say enough about the job that Kromer’s done,” Whitworth said. “Really, just how amazing of a coach he’s been all season long. It never ceases to really amaze me. Every single week, it’s like something happens, whether it’s a high or a low – how he handles it, how he, really, directs our group. He’s a tremendous football coach and somebody in this league that I think deserves a ton of respect for the job he does.”
Perhaps, in light of his line’s tremendous play this season, that respect will lead to another job interview in the near future. Though, he’s not so sure about that.
“Guys that are calling pass plays get head coaching jobs,” Kromer said. “So if it happens, it happens.”
But with the underappreciated Rams front playing its best football of the season, that certainly seems like a conversation worth having.
“This is a great job I have with Sean McVay,” Kromer said. “He makes sense. Football makes sense. We learn so much together every day, and this team we’ve all put together, win, lose or draw, just working with these guys, it’s an ideal situation.”
NFC championship caption this
- By ljramsfan
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 29 Replies
Over there..is that Saints bullshit
Who else is getting crap from Aints fans?
- By IE Rams
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 40 Replies
And more importantly: You don't take crap like that. What are you doing about it?
Someone from work comes up to my office door and chucks some friggin mardi gras juju voodoo beads at me then splits, yelling "fear the voodoo juju."
"Voodoo juju, my ass. Fear this." quoth I, then chucked those nasty ass things in the proper receptacle, where they belong and remain:
Someone from work comes up to my office door and chucks some friggin mardi gras juju voodoo beads at me then splits, yelling "fear the voodoo juju."
"Voodoo juju, my ass. Fear this." quoth I, then chucked those nasty ass things in the proper receptacle, where they belong and remain:
Building a Winner: How the Rams’ Blueprint Stacks Up With the Saints, Patriots and Chiefs
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 18 Replies
https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/17/n...ms-saints-patriots-chiefs-roster-construction
Building a Winner: How the Rams’ Blueprint Stacks Up With the Saints, Patriots and Chiefs
By ALBERT BREER
Les Snead was in the air without wifi when divisional-playoff Sunday kicked off last January. He was in a cab when word got to him that the Jaguars beat the Steelers. And try as he might to ignore football on his getaway to Hawaii—that was the whole point of the trip—he couldn’t help but notice a certain restlessness later that day in the restaurant he was in, or that it might have been a football game that caused it.
The Minneapolis Miracle had just gone down, and it was a matter of time before Snead heard more about it. Which prompted two reactions from the Rams GM.
First, he sent a text to Case Keenum, his old quarterback and the triggerman behind the Vikings’ breathtaking, last-gasp play to knock off the Saints and advance to the NFC Championship Game. Second, he vowed to not forget what being left out felt like, just a week after the Rams’ season ended with a wild-card loss to the Falcons at home.
And then he remembered Alabama coach Nick Saban having a saying plastered everywhere after the Tide lost the national title game in January 2017 to Deshaun Watson and Clemson: Don’t waste that feeling.
“Remember the disappointment,” Snead said from his office on Wednesday afternoon. “That helps. I’ve had it written across different things in my office. So it’s everything you do—it’s improving the roster, but it’s also improving this gadget, it’s improving how we do food, how we travel, all those things. It’s the minutiae of trying to get better on a Tuesday in March.
“When that no longer stings, read that line and say, ‘Know what? That did sting. And let’s do better than we did last year.’”
Snead swears now that the Rams’ explosion of aggressiveness during the 2017 offseason happened organically—moves driven in reaction to circumstances and opportunity. But he has no problem conceding that it was also an outgrowth of the loss at the Coliseum, the feeling it left, and that moment a week later in Hawaii.
This year he wasn’t in Hawaii for the divisional round. He was back in the Coliseum, watching his Rams run the Cowboys out of the building to advance to play a Saints team that suffered an even more painful ending last January.
And so as we take our annual look at the roster construction of the four conference finalists, this is a year when there are few big overarching trends in the construction of the teams (outside of significant investment in offensive and defensive linemen). But with each roster, there is a certain urgency with which they were put together, and nowhere is that true more than in Los Angeles.
But we’re starting with a project I began three years ago, and have carried over in the years since, with a look at how each of the final four teams is built. So here’s what the study showed.
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Homegrown on 53: 25 (21 draftees/four college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 21
Trades/waivers on 53: Seven
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Patrick Mahomes 10th overall in 2017 (traded 27th and 91st overall picks, 2018 first-round pick for 10th overall pick).
Last five first-round picks: QB Patrick Mahomes (2017, 10); CB Marcus Peters (2015, 22); DE Dee Ford (2014, 23); OT Eric Fisher (2013, 1); DT Dontari Poe (2012, 11).
Top five cap figures: OLB Justin Houston $20.60 million; OT Eric Fisher $13.95 million; S Eric Berry $13.00 million; TE Travis Kelce $9.96 million; DE Allen Bailey $7.97 million.
LOS ANGELES RAMS
Homegrown on 53: 33 (26 draftees/Seven college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 11
Trades/waivers on 53: Nine
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Jared Goff first overall in 2016 (traded 15th, 43rd, 45th and 76th overall picks, and 2017 first- and third round picks for first, 113th, and 177th overall picks).
Last five first-round picks: QB Jared Goff (2016, 1); RB Todd Gurley (2015, 10); OT Greg Robinson (2014, 2); DT Aaron Donald (2014, 13); WR Tavon Austin/LB Alec Ogletree (2013, 8/30).
Top five cap figures: DT Ndamukong Suh $14.50 million; OT Andrew Whitworth $12.67 million; S Lamarcus Joyner $11.29 million; CB Aqib Talib $11.01 million; DL Michael Brockers $10.76 million.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Homegrown on 53: 31 (23 draftees/eight college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 14
Trades/waivers on 53: Eight
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Tom Brady 199th overall in 2000.
Last five first-round picks: OL Isaiah Wynn/RB Sony Michel (2018, 23/31); DT Malcom Brown (2015, 32); DL Dominique Easley (2014, 29); DE Chandler Jones/LB Don’t’a Hightower (2012, 21/25).
Top five cap figures: QB Tom Brady $22.00 million; CB Stephon Gilmore $12.513 million; S Devin McCourty $11.94 million; TE Rob Gronkowski $10.91 million; LB Dont’a Hightower $8.53 million.
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Homegrown on 53: 28 (20 draftees/eight college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 20
Trades/waivers on 53: five
Quarterback acquired: Signed Drew Brees to a six-year, $60 million free-agent deal in 2006.
Last five first-round picks: DE Marcus Davenport (2018, 14); CB Marshon Lattimore/OT Ryan Ramczyk (2017, 11/32); DT Sheldon Rankins (2016, 12); OL Andrus Peat/LB Stephone Anthony (2015, 13/31).
Top five cap figures: QB Drew Brees $24.00 million; DE Cam Jordan $14.50 million; OT Terron Armstead $13.5 million; OG Larry Warford $9.01 million; C Max Unger $8.01 million.
So what to take away? Three things I noticed:
One, more players on these rosters are landing there via trade or waiver claims than before. The 2015 quartet of Arizona, Carolina, Denver and New England had acquired a total of 18 of their players that way going into championship weekend. In 2016, that number dipped to 12 for the conference finalist. Last year, it was up to 26. This year, it’s 29. So these teams are working the waiver wire and trade market.
Two, there’s a huge gap in age at quarterback—and in method of their acquisition. Brady is 41 and Brees is 40. Goff is 24 and Mahomes is 23. Brady and Brees came into the NFL as non-first-rounders, and Brees was allowed to hit the free-agent market by his drafting team (the Chargers) due to injury. Both Goff and Mahomes were traded up for in the Top 10. Conclusion? Quarterbacks don’t slip through the cracks much anymore.
Three, the investment in linemen, as we said, is noticeable. Take the five highest cap numbers on the rosters of the Chiefs, Rams and Saints, and 11 of those 15 players (including Houston, an on-ball linebacker) are linemen. And the Patriots spent three of their last four first-round picks on linemen, and have three offensive linemen on second contracts playing for trench wizard Dante Scarnecchia.
And that brings us back to Snead, and the aggression-born-of-disappointment within the Ram organization that took the team from up-and-comer to juggernaut in one offseason.
There wasn’t some seminal meeting to map things out, nor was there a detailed plan to go and collect stars like a director would assemble an ensemble cast. In fact, as Snead explains it now, the Rams’ splashy 2018 really was more a step-by-step reaction to the conditions facing the team. And it started with a simple decision.
“It was definitely organic. We didn’t put the cart before the horse,” said Snead. “The news of the day was ‘Who are they gonna franchise? Sammy [Watkins], Trumaine [Johnson] or Lamarcus [Joyner]?’ One of them being a receiver, two of them being DBs, we did know that there would be disruption in the defensive backfield. If we franchised Sammy, two are on the market. And we knew if we picked one of the DBs, there’d be disruption at receiver.”
That Johnson had been tagged twice already made the call not to tag him (it’d be at the quarterback number) easy. And looking at the price points for Watkins ($15.982 million) and Joyner ($11.287 million), it made sense to ease the loss of one DB, and roll the dice on being able to keep Watkins after he hit the market. And that opened the door to rework the defense in coordinator Wade Phillips’ vision.
So the dominoes started falling.
• Ahead of the combine, the Rams worked out a deal to send second- and fourth-round picks to the Chiefs for a sixth-round pick and Pro Bowl corner Marcus Peters, whose disruptive and selfish behavior in Kansas City landed him on the trade block. For all his problems, Peters brought elite ability to L.A., and only cost $1.7 million for 2018, with a $9.1 million team option for 2019.
• Two weeks later, L.A. landed a bookend for Peters, trading a fifth-round pick to Denver for five-time Pro Bowler Aqib Talib, who fell out of favor with the Broncos because his performance went south with that of the team at the end of 2017. The feeling was he could pull teammates either way, and the Broncos saw that as an issue as they looked to get younger. Clearing the 32-year-old off the roster also would give them a better look at former first-round pick Bradley Roby.
• Phillips’ defense prizes two types of players—cover corners and pressure guys. With the former taken care of, and the Rams having moved front-seven fixtures Robert Quinn and Alec Ogletree to create flexibility, the hunt was on for the latter. They could spend their first-rounder on a pass rusher.
Or they could keep it as a chip and pursue defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. In Miami, Suh wasn’t a problem so much as he’d done nothing to help fix problems that arose there, which positioned him as an easy casualty of a culture overhaul. On the flip side, the Rams had strength coach, Ted Rath, who worked with Suh in Detroit, to vouch for him, and help grease the skids for a one-year deal to get done.
• The receiver market exploded in free agency. The Chiefs outbid the Rams for Watkins, landing him at $48 million over three years, which in a roundabout way created opportunity. New England’s Brandin Cooks was headed into a contract year, and the new bar for paying receivers set too rich a price for the Patriots to extend him.
When the Rams initially asked about Cooks, they got a flat ‘no.’ In March it was a ‘maybe.’ In early April, that 1 they deemed a chip (with Suh filling the need for a pass-rusher) was to Foxboro for the receiver that McVay wanted in 2017 before settling for Watkins.
The Rams, of course, weren’t done there. They stayed out of the offensive line market, figuring they could use the draft to get younger and deeper, which they did. There still was a need for an edge player to complement Donald, addressed at the trade deadline with a deal for Dante Fowler.
And along the way, they actually inquired about Odell Beckham and got in on the Khalil Mack sweepstakes in July, later offering Oakland close to what the Bears spent for him.
But the theme was the same throughout. And while, yes, it was partly facilitated by having a quarterback on a rookie deal, the Rams’ push was more than just that.
“There’s a sense of urgency,” Snead said. “But you need to use that cap space right. So how do you best support the environment to help get your rookie quarterback to what we’d call the ‘O.K., we got one’ stage. That’s step one. You get him to the point where you’re saying, ‘O.K., he’s definitely one.’ Now he’s earned that status [and in 2017] we got this team that not only can win the division, but did win the division.
“So there’s this element—you’ve proven you’re in this window, having a quarterback on a rookie contract, and having that quarterback playing well enough for your team to be a division and playoff contender. That window is only going to last so long, so you want to take advantage of that.”
What’s interesting is that the Rams have mortgaged little of their future in their construction of a contender. They bet that the strength of their infrastructure in coaching (and with McVay in particular), the locker room (with guys like Gurley and Donald) and elsewhere would allow them to absorb the risks they took on in Suh, Peters and Talib. The team has been right in that regard thus far, but theyaren’t tied to any of those guys long-term. Nor are there are many contracts that put the team in the lurch after this year.
And if you look at the three trends we identified with the conference finalist, all are A-plus areas for the Rams. They’ve been aggressive on trades. They have a 24-year-old at quarterback. They’ve invested heavily in their lines. Their biggest decision coming out of 2018, in fact, might be whether or not to hang on to guard Rodger Saffold.
To be sure, Saffold’s been a good player. But that this is about to be the pressing issue should illustrate the kind of shape they’re in going forward. I could sense Snead is well aware of that when I gave him the roster makeup chart to analyze.
“Well, what I did like about it, of the four teams, we have the most homegrown players,” Snead said. “You have a nice nucleus. You build, build, then there’s a breakthrough, and now you’re in what you’d term the ‘alive’ stage. Well, how do you stay alive? There’s an element of variables that make that a challenge.
“Obviously, being a winning team, you’re going to have others who want players from your team, you’re not going to be able to re-sign all of them. … The other variable, when you’re in that alive stage, you’re drafting later.”
And then I stopped Snead—Good problem to have?
“Yeah,” he answered. “It’s the problem you want to have.”
Building a Winner: How the Rams’ Blueprint Stacks Up With the Saints, Patriots and Chiefs
By ALBERT BREER
Les Snead was in the air without wifi when divisional-playoff Sunday kicked off last January. He was in a cab when word got to him that the Jaguars beat the Steelers. And try as he might to ignore football on his getaway to Hawaii—that was the whole point of the trip—he couldn’t help but notice a certain restlessness later that day in the restaurant he was in, or that it might have been a football game that caused it.
The Minneapolis Miracle had just gone down, and it was a matter of time before Snead heard more about it. Which prompted two reactions from the Rams GM.
First, he sent a text to Case Keenum, his old quarterback and the triggerman behind the Vikings’ breathtaking, last-gasp play to knock off the Saints and advance to the NFC Championship Game. Second, he vowed to not forget what being left out felt like, just a week after the Rams’ season ended with a wild-card loss to the Falcons at home.
And then he remembered Alabama coach Nick Saban having a saying plastered everywhere after the Tide lost the national title game in January 2017 to Deshaun Watson and Clemson: Don’t waste that feeling.
“Remember the disappointment,” Snead said from his office on Wednesday afternoon. “That helps. I’ve had it written across different things in my office. So it’s everything you do—it’s improving the roster, but it’s also improving this gadget, it’s improving how we do food, how we travel, all those things. It’s the minutiae of trying to get better on a Tuesday in March.
“When that no longer stings, read that line and say, ‘Know what? That did sting. And let’s do better than we did last year.’”
Snead swears now that the Rams’ explosion of aggressiveness during the 2017 offseason happened organically—moves driven in reaction to circumstances and opportunity. But he has no problem conceding that it was also an outgrowth of the loss at the Coliseum, the feeling it left, and that moment a week later in Hawaii.
This year he wasn’t in Hawaii for the divisional round. He was back in the Coliseum, watching his Rams run the Cowboys out of the building to advance to play a Saints team that suffered an even more painful ending last January.
And so as we take our annual look at the roster construction of the four conference finalists, this is a year when there are few big overarching trends in the construction of the teams (outside of significant investment in offensive and defensive linemen). But with each roster, there is a certain urgency with which they were put together, and nowhere is that true more than in Los Angeles.
But we’re starting with a project I began three years ago, and have carried over in the years since, with a look at how each of the final four teams is built. So here’s what the study showed.
KANSAS CITY CHIEFS
Homegrown on 53: 25 (21 draftees/four college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 21
Trades/waivers on 53: Seven
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Patrick Mahomes 10th overall in 2017 (traded 27th and 91st overall picks, 2018 first-round pick for 10th overall pick).
Last five first-round picks: QB Patrick Mahomes (2017, 10); CB Marcus Peters (2015, 22); DE Dee Ford (2014, 23); OT Eric Fisher (2013, 1); DT Dontari Poe (2012, 11).
Top five cap figures: OLB Justin Houston $20.60 million; OT Eric Fisher $13.95 million; S Eric Berry $13.00 million; TE Travis Kelce $9.96 million; DE Allen Bailey $7.97 million.
LOS ANGELES RAMS
Homegrown on 53: 33 (26 draftees/Seven college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 11
Trades/waivers on 53: Nine
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Jared Goff first overall in 2016 (traded 15th, 43rd, 45th and 76th overall picks, and 2017 first- and third round picks for first, 113th, and 177th overall picks).
Last five first-round picks: QB Jared Goff (2016, 1); RB Todd Gurley (2015, 10); OT Greg Robinson (2014, 2); DT Aaron Donald (2014, 13); WR Tavon Austin/LB Alec Ogletree (2013, 8/30).
Top five cap figures: DT Ndamukong Suh $14.50 million; OT Andrew Whitworth $12.67 million; S Lamarcus Joyner $11.29 million; CB Aqib Talib $11.01 million; DL Michael Brockers $10.76 million.
NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS
Homegrown on 53: 31 (23 draftees/eight college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 14
Trades/waivers on 53: Eight
Quarterback acquired: Drafted Tom Brady 199th overall in 2000.
Last five first-round picks: OL Isaiah Wynn/RB Sony Michel (2018, 23/31); DT Malcom Brown (2015, 32); DL Dominique Easley (2014, 29); DE Chandler Jones/LB Don’t’a Hightower (2012, 21/25).
Top five cap figures: QB Tom Brady $22.00 million; CB Stephon Gilmore $12.513 million; S Devin McCourty $11.94 million; TE Rob Gronkowski $10.91 million; LB Dont’a Hightower $8.53 million.
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS
Homegrown on 53: 28 (20 draftees/eight college free agents)
Outside free agents on 53: 20
Trades/waivers on 53: five
Quarterback acquired: Signed Drew Brees to a six-year, $60 million free-agent deal in 2006.
Last five first-round picks: DE Marcus Davenport (2018, 14); CB Marshon Lattimore/OT Ryan Ramczyk (2017, 11/32); DT Sheldon Rankins (2016, 12); OL Andrus Peat/LB Stephone Anthony (2015, 13/31).
Top five cap figures: QB Drew Brees $24.00 million; DE Cam Jordan $14.50 million; OT Terron Armstead $13.5 million; OG Larry Warford $9.01 million; C Max Unger $8.01 million.
So what to take away? Three things I noticed:
One, more players on these rosters are landing there via trade or waiver claims than before. The 2015 quartet of Arizona, Carolina, Denver and New England had acquired a total of 18 of their players that way going into championship weekend. In 2016, that number dipped to 12 for the conference finalist. Last year, it was up to 26. This year, it’s 29. So these teams are working the waiver wire and trade market.
Two, there’s a huge gap in age at quarterback—and in method of their acquisition. Brady is 41 and Brees is 40. Goff is 24 and Mahomes is 23. Brady and Brees came into the NFL as non-first-rounders, and Brees was allowed to hit the free-agent market by his drafting team (the Chargers) due to injury. Both Goff and Mahomes were traded up for in the Top 10. Conclusion? Quarterbacks don’t slip through the cracks much anymore.
Three, the investment in linemen, as we said, is noticeable. Take the five highest cap numbers on the rosters of the Chiefs, Rams and Saints, and 11 of those 15 players (including Houston, an on-ball linebacker) are linemen. And the Patriots spent three of their last four first-round picks on linemen, and have three offensive linemen on second contracts playing for trench wizard Dante Scarnecchia.
And that brings us back to Snead, and the aggression-born-of-disappointment within the Ram organization that took the team from up-and-comer to juggernaut in one offseason.
There wasn’t some seminal meeting to map things out, nor was there a detailed plan to go and collect stars like a director would assemble an ensemble cast. In fact, as Snead explains it now, the Rams’ splashy 2018 really was more a step-by-step reaction to the conditions facing the team. And it started with a simple decision.
“It was definitely organic. We didn’t put the cart before the horse,” said Snead. “The news of the day was ‘Who are they gonna franchise? Sammy [Watkins], Trumaine [Johnson] or Lamarcus [Joyner]?’ One of them being a receiver, two of them being DBs, we did know that there would be disruption in the defensive backfield. If we franchised Sammy, two are on the market. And we knew if we picked one of the DBs, there’d be disruption at receiver.”
That Johnson had been tagged twice already made the call not to tag him (it’d be at the quarterback number) easy. And looking at the price points for Watkins ($15.982 million) and Joyner ($11.287 million), it made sense to ease the loss of one DB, and roll the dice on being able to keep Watkins after he hit the market. And that opened the door to rework the defense in coordinator Wade Phillips’ vision.
So the dominoes started falling.
• Ahead of the combine, the Rams worked out a deal to send second- and fourth-round picks to the Chiefs for a sixth-round pick and Pro Bowl corner Marcus Peters, whose disruptive and selfish behavior in Kansas City landed him on the trade block. For all his problems, Peters brought elite ability to L.A., and only cost $1.7 million for 2018, with a $9.1 million team option for 2019.
• Two weeks later, L.A. landed a bookend for Peters, trading a fifth-round pick to Denver for five-time Pro Bowler Aqib Talib, who fell out of favor with the Broncos because his performance went south with that of the team at the end of 2017. The feeling was he could pull teammates either way, and the Broncos saw that as an issue as they looked to get younger. Clearing the 32-year-old off the roster also would give them a better look at former first-round pick Bradley Roby.
• Phillips’ defense prizes two types of players—cover corners and pressure guys. With the former taken care of, and the Rams having moved front-seven fixtures Robert Quinn and Alec Ogletree to create flexibility, the hunt was on for the latter. They could spend their first-rounder on a pass rusher.
Or they could keep it as a chip and pursue defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh. In Miami, Suh wasn’t a problem so much as he’d done nothing to help fix problems that arose there, which positioned him as an easy casualty of a culture overhaul. On the flip side, the Rams had strength coach, Ted Rath, who worked with Suh in Detroit, to vouch for him, and help grease the skids for a one-year deal to get done.
• The receiver market exploded in free agency. The Chiefs outbid the Rams for Watkins, landing him at $48 million over three years, which in a roundabout way created opportunity. New England’s Brandin Cooks was headed into a contract year, and the new bar for paying receivers set too rich a price for the Patriots to extend him.
When the Rams initially asked about Cooks, they got a flat ‘no.’ In March it was a ‘maybe.’ In early April, that 1 they deemed a chip (with Suh filling the need for a pass-rusher) was to Foxboro for the receiver that McVay wanted in 2017 before settling for Watkins.
The Rams, of course, weren’t done there. They stayed out of the offensive line market, figuring they could use the draft to get younger and deeper, which they did. There still was a need for an edge player to complement Donald, addressed at the trade deadline with a deal for Dante Fowler.
And along the way, they actually inquired about Odell Beckham and got in on the Khalil Mack sweepstakes in July, later offering Oakland close to what the Bears spent for him.
But the theme was the same throughout. And while, yes, it was partly facilitated by having a quarterback on a rookie deal, the Rams’ push was more than just that.
“There’s a sense of urgency,” Snead said. “But you need to use that cap space right. So how do you best support the environment to help get your rookie quarterback to what we’d call the ‘O.K., we got one’ stage. That’s step one. You get him to the point where you’re saying, ‘O.K., he’s definitely one.’ Now he’s earned that status [and in 2017] we got this team that not only can win the division, but did win the division.
“So there’s this element—you’ve proven you’re in this window, having a quarterback on a rookie contract, and having that quarterback playing well enough for your team to be a division and playoff contender. That window is only going to last so long, so you want to take advantage of that.”
What’s interesting is that the Rams have mortgaged little of their future in their construction of a contender. They bet that the strength of their infrastructure in coaching (and with McVay in particular), the locker room (with guys like Gurley and Donald) and elsewhere would allow them to absorb the risks they took on in Suh, Peters and Talib. The team has been right in that regard thus far, but theyaren’t tied to any of those guys long-term. Nor are there are many contracts that put the team in the lurch after this year.
And if you look at the three trends we identified with the conference finalist, all are A-plus areas for the Rams. They’ve been aggressive on trades. They have a 24-year-old at quarterback. They’ve invested heavily in their lines. Their biggest decision coming out of 2018, in fact, might be whether or not to hang on to guard Rodger Saffold.
To be sure, Saffold’s been a good player. But that this is about to be the pressing issue should illustrate the kind of shape they’re in going forward. I could sense Snead is well aware of that when I gave him the roster makeup chart to analyze.
“Well, what I did like about it, of the four teams, we have the most homegrown players,” Snead said. “You have a nice nucleus. You build, build, then there’s a breakthrough, and now you’re in what you’d term the ‘alive’ stage. Well, how do you stay alive? There’s an element of variables that make that a challenge.
“Obviously, being a winning team, you’re going to have others who want players from your team, you’re not going to be able to re-sign all of them. … The other variable, when you’re in that alive stage, you’re drafting later.”
And then I stopped Snead—Good problem to have?
“Yeah,” he answered. “It’s the problem you want to have.”
White uniforms this Sunday vs. Saints
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 27 Replies
https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/17/nfl-rams-saints-uniforms-nfc-championship/
Here's what uniforms Rams will wear vs. Saints in NFC title game
By: Cameron DaSilva
Fans were treated to one of the most iconic uniform combos in the NFL on Saturday night when the Los Angeles Rams hosted the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams went with their classic blue and yellow throwbacks, while the Cowboys sported their recognizable white and royal threads.
Unfortunately, the Rams and Saints won’t look as sharp this weekend at the Superdome. The Rams confirmed in an Instagram comment that they’re wearing their white uniforms, which was initially believed to be the case when the media guide for Sunday was released, displaying a blue and white helmet.
The Saints, on the other hand, will most likely wear their black uniforms, just as they did in their first two meetings with the Rams at the Superdome this year – once in the preseason and again in Week 9.
This is sure to disappoint Rams fans, but they’ve only worn their blue and yellow uniforms at home, and even with the magnitude of this game, it would’ve gone against tradition to wear them on the road.
One fan on Twitter wishes they could wear these white throwbacks with yellow pants from the Jim Everett era.
Here's what uniforms Rams will wear vs. Saints in NFC title game
By: Cameron DaSilva
Fans were treated to one of the most iconic uniform combos in the NFL on Saturday night when the Los Angeles Rams hosted the Dallas Cowboys. The Rams went with their classic blue and yellow throwbacks, while the Cowboys sported their recognizable white and royal threads.
Unfortunately, the Rams and Saints won’t look as sharp this weekend at the Superdome. The Rams confirmed in an Instagram comment that they’re wearing their white uniforms, which was initially believed to be the case when the media guide for Sunday was released, displaying a blue and white helmet.
The Saints, on the other hand, will most likely wear their black uniforms, just as they did in their first two meetings with the Rams at the Superdome this year – once in the preseason and again in Week 9.
This is sure to disappoint Rams fans, but they’ve only worn their blue and yellow uniforms at home, and even with the magnitude of this game, it would’ve gone against tradition to wear them on the road.
One fan on Twitter wishes they could wear these white throwbacks with yellow pants from the Jim Everett era.
PFF: Ranking the four conference championship teams at every position group
- By Prime Time
- RAMS / NFL TALK
- 27 Replies
Rams #3 for defensive line and #2 for linebackers? Heck Aaron Donald alone should have put them at #2.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...ce-championship-teams-at-every-position-group
Ranking the four conference championship teams at every position group
BY MICHAEL RENNER
QUARTERBACK
1. Chiefs
2. Saints
3. Patriots
4. Rams
It’s not surprising that this is the strongest positional group. All four quarterbacks graded inside the top 10 this season. Patrick Mahomes’ game-to-game consistency earns the top spot though. He only had one game grade below 65.0 while everyone else had at least three. From there, the only debate was Tom Brady or Jared Goff at three. Goff started the season on fire and was the third-highest-graded quarterback in the NFL through 10 weeks. His late-season lull though gave Brady the nod.
RUNNING BACK
1. Saints
2. Rams
3. Patriots
4. Chiefs
The emergence of C.J. Anderson throws a bit of a wrench into things here. Still, Alvin Kamara has consistently been the most elusive of all the backs over the last two years, while Mark Ingram II has averaged the most yards after contact per attempt this season (3.2). Kareem Hunt would have sent the Chiefs to the top of these rankings, but that doesn’t mean that Damien Williams is any slouch in the fourth spot. His 2.7 yards after contact per attempt this season is more than respectable.
OFFENSIVE LINE
1. Patriots
2. Rams
3. Saints
4. Chiefs
Another unit where all four teams would classify as above average. In our end of season offensive line rankings the Patriots finished third, followed by the Rams sixth, Saints eighth, and Chiefs 13th. What separates the Patriots from the rest of the group is the lack of holes. The lowest-graded Pats starter is left tackle Trent Brown with a respectable 66.9 overall grade. Every other unit has a starter graded out below 60.0.
The other three though feature arguably the three best tackle tandems in the NFL. The Saints Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk were both top-three at their respective tackle positions, while the same thing can be said for the Rams Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein. Then there’s the Chiefs who feature PFF All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher, whose 71.7 grade this season is competent enough on the left side.
RECEIVERS
1. Chiefs
2. Rams
3. Saints
4. Patriots
There wasn’t a scarier wide receiver in all of football this season than Tyreek Hill. He broke the PFF record for deep receiving yards with 754. Add in Travis Kelce who had the second-best yards per route among tight ends along with Sammy Watkins and you have the best receiving corps in football.
The Rams would have made it a debate with Cooper Kupp healthy, but Josh Reynolds hasn’t come close to replicating Kupp’s production. Kupp averaged 2.27 yards per route before going on IR while Reynolds has averaged 1.24 this season. The Patriots are a clear fourth place without Josh Gordon and a Gronk impersonator at tight end.
DEFENSIVE LINE
1. Chiefs
2. Saints
3. Rams
4. Patriots
Maybe the most hotly contested debate of any positional group. The Chiefs have the pass-rushing prowess at the top though with Chris Jones (91.2), Dee Ford (91.0), and Justin Houston (89.7) all earning elite pass-rushing grades this season. The Saints earn the second spot with their depth. Cameron Jordan (89.7), David Onyemata (83.5), Alex Okafor (72.0), and Marcus Davenport (71.8) all earned above-average grades on the year.
Aaron Donald was in his own planet though. He totaled almost as many pressures (106) as Jordan and Sheldon Rankins (who will miss the remainder of the season with an Achilles injury) combined (112).
LINEBACKER
1. Saints
2. Rams
3. Patriots
4. Chiefs
Linebacker is without a doubt the weakest positional group across the board. Demario Davis is the highest-graded of the bunch with only a 75.5 overall grade. In fact, the Saints own the three highest graded linebackers as Alex Anzalone and A.J. Klein’s grades of 71.8 and 69.7 respectively hold up.
The Rams’ Cory Littleton is the dark horse of the group though, as his eight pass breakups were the most in the league this season. It’s been a decidedly down year for Dont’a Hightower, who’s only gotten his hands on one pass all season long (coincidentally in the Chiefs game) and has allowed a passer rating of 100.6 in coverage. The Chiefs are clearly the worst, as Anthony Hitchens was the lowest-graded linebacker in the NFL.
SECONDARY
1. Patriots
2. Rams
3. Chiefs
4. Saints
In our end of year secondary rankings the Patriots finished second, Rams sixth, Chiefs 17th, and Saints 28th. It was a career year for Stephon Gilmore that saw him as PFF’s highest-graded corner and first-team All-Pro selection. He carries them to the top spot.
The return of Aqib Talib earns the Rams the second spot and the underrated play of Nickell Robey-Coleman from the slot is also helping. His 82.6 overall grade was top-three among full-time slot corners in the league.
The Saints are capable of better play than their ranking shows, but P.J. Williams (56.4) and Ken Crawley’s (50.7) disastrous overall grades this season are what dragged them down in the season-long ranking.
https://www.profootballfocus.com/ne...ce-championship-teams-at-every-position-group
Ranking the four conference championship teams at every position group
BY MICHAEL RENNER
QUARTERBACK
1. Chiefs
2. Saints
3. Patriots
4. Rams
It’s not surprising that this is the strongest positional group. All four quarterbacks graded inside the top 10 this season. Patrick Mahomes’ game-to-game consistency earns the top spot though. He only had one game grade below 65.0 while everyone else had at least three. From there, the only debate was Tom Brady or Jared Goff at three. Goff started the season on fire and was the third-highest-graded quarterback in the NFL through 10 weeks. His late-season lull though gave Brady the nod.
RUNNING BACK
1. Saints
2. Rams
3. Patriots
4. Chiefs
The emergence of C.J. Anderson throws a bit of a wrench into things here. Still, Alvin Kamara has consistently been the most elusive of all the backs over the last two years, while Mark Ingram II has averaged the most yards after contact per attempt this season (3.2). Kareem Hunt would have sent the Chiefs to the top of these rankings, but that doesn’t mean that Damien Williams is any slouch in the fourth spot. His 2.7 yards after contact per attempt this season is more than respectable.
OFFENSIVE LINE
1. Patriots
2. Rams
3. Saints
4. Chiefs
Another unit where all four teams would classify as above average. In our end of season offensive line rankings the Patriots finished third, followed by the Rams sixth, Saints eighth, and Chiefs 13th. What separates the Patriots from the rest of the group is the lack of holes. The lowest-graded Pats starter is left tackle Trent Brown with a respectable 66.9 overall grade. Every other unit has a starter graded out below 60.0.
The other three though feature arguably the three best tackle tandems in the NFL. The Saints Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk were both top-three at their respective tackle positions, while the same thing can be said for the Rams Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein. Then there’s the Chiefs who feature PFF All-Pro right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and Eric Fisher, whose 71.7 grade this season is competent enough on the left side.
RECEIVERS
1. Chiefs
2. Rams
3. Saints
4. Patriots
There wasn’t a scarier wide receiver in all of football this season than Tyreek Hill. He broke the PFF record for deep receiving yards with 754. Add in Travis Kelce who had the second-best yards per route among tight ends along with Sammy Watkins and you have the best receiving corps in football.
The Rams would have made it a debate with Cooper Kupp healthy, but Josh Reynolds hasn’t come close to replicating Kupp’s production. Kupp averaged 2.27 yards per route before going on IR while Reynolds has averaged 1.24 this season. The Patriots are a clear fourth place without Josh Gordon and a Gronk impersonator at tight end.
DEFENSIVE LINE
1. Chiefs
2. Saints
3. Rams
4. Patriots
Maybe the most hotly contested debate of any positional group. The Chiefs have the pass-rushing prowess at the top though with Chris Jones (91.2), Dee Ford (91.0), and Justin Houston (89.7) all earning elite pass-rushing grades this season. The Saints earn the second spot with their depth. Cameron Jordan (89.7), David Onyemata (83.5), Alex Okafor (72.0), and Marcus Davenport (71.8) all earned above-average grades on the year.
Aaron Donald was in his own planet though. He totaled almost as many pressures (106) as Jordan and Sheldon Rankins (who will miss the remainder of the season with an Achilles injury) combined (112).
LINEBACKER
1. Saints
2. Rams
3. Patriots
4. Chiefs
Linebacker is without a doubt the weakest positional group across the board. Demario Davis is the highest-graded of the bunch with only a 75.5 overall grade. In fact, the Saints own the three highest graded linebackers as Alex Anzalone and A.J. Klein’s grades of 71.8 and 69.7 respectively hold up.
The Rams’ Cory Littleton is the dark horse of the group though, as his eight pass breakups were the most in the league this season. It’s been a decidedly down year for Dont’a Hightower, who’s only gotten his hands on one pass all season long (coincidentally in the Chiefs game) and has allowed a passer rating of 100.6 in coverage. The Chiefs are clearly the worst, as Anthony Hitchens was the lowest-graded linebacker in the NFL.
SECONDARY
1. Patriots
2. Rams
3. Chiefs
4. Saints
In our end of year secondary rankings the Patriots finished second, Rams sixth, Chiefs 17th, and Saints 28th. It was a career year for Stephon Gilmore that saw him as PFF’s highest-graded corner and first-team All-Pro selection. He carries them to the top spot.
The return of Aqib Talib earns the Rams the second spot and the underrated play of Nickell Robey-Coleman from the slot is also helping. His 82.6 overall grade was top-three among full-time slot corners in the league.
The Saints are capable of better play than their ranking shows, but P.J. Williams (56.4) and Ken Crawley’s (50.7) disastrous overall grades this season are what dragged them down in the season-long ranking.