The Rams defense ranked 15th in tackling in 2024 according to NFL Next Gen Stats
The Los Angeles Rams defense in 2024 was full of peaks and valleys. Chris Shula’s debut didn’t start off as he might have hoped as the Rams defense gave up 41 points in Week 2 to the Arizona Cardinals. While the talent was always there for Jared Verse, one of his biggest criticisms and the defense as a whole was undisciplined tackling. Through the first nine weeks of the season, Verse ranked in the top-five in both missed tackles and missed tackle percentage. The Rams rookie had 11 missed tackles over the first four weeks.
However, this is in area where the Rams defense greatly improved as the season progressed. That was especially the case once Omar Speights took over at linebacker. The Rams undrafted free agent was a top-10 tackling linebacker over the back-half of the season.
NFL NextGen Stats recently ranked all 32 teams based on tackling grades in 2024. Coming in at number 15 was the Rams. Per the column,
“Through the first 10 weeks of the season, the Rams ranked 26th in the NFL in tackle efficiency, while no healthy starter posted a missed tackle rate below 9.5% and the team had a win-loss record of 4-5. In the last eight weeks of the regular season, they ranked eighth in tackle efficiency while finishing with a 6-2 record, then converted 70 of 74 tackle opportunities in their Wild Card Round win over the Vikings. From Week 11 through the playoffs, seven starters (Christian Rozeboom, Omar Speights, Quentin Lake, Kamren Kinchens, Kamren Curl, Darious Williams, Bobby Brown) recorded a missed tackle rate of 8.8% or lower.”
As the Rams got more comfortable in Shula’s defense, the tackling also improved. That was the case for Verse as the NFL started to slow down for him. After missing 11 tackles over the first four weeks, he missed 10 the rest of the season. As Christian Rozeboom got more comfortable, he also started to play faster and more instinctual.
It is worth noting that right ahead of the Rams were the Seattle Seahawks at 14. According to the analysis,
“A major factor in that success was midseason acquisition Ernest Jones, who finished third on the team in tackles (94) in just 10 games. His missed tackle rate with the Seahawks (6.0%) ranked as the third-lowest in the NFL.”
Prior to the beginning of the season, the Rams traded Jones for a day three pick swap in 2026. Jones was one of the top tackling linebackers in Mike Macdonald’s defense.
The Rams will continue to improve in this area in 2025. For most of this young defense, it will be year two in Shula’s scheme. The hope there is that they can continue to build on their success after the Week 6 bye. Defensively, the Rams have a lot of young, promising pieces, but those players will need to take another step forward in year two.
