Five weeks into the 2024 season, the Los Angeles Rams did not look like a team to be taken seriously. They had bottomed out with a 1-4 start, neither Puka Nacua nor Cooper Kupp was healthy, which affected Matthew Stafford’s ability to be Matthew Stafford, and a defense that had the league talking about its potential before the season started wasn’t realizing it.
We all know what happened after the Week 6 bye. Sean McVay’s team went 9-3 down the stretch in the regular season, won the NFC West, beat the daylights out of the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card round, and lost a real nail-biter to the eventual Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the Divisional frame.
Now, it’s onto the next. The Rams lost Cooper Kupp to the Seattle Seahawks, and picked up Davante Adams (more on him in a minute) as a potentially dynamic replacement. Stafford looks to be every bit the quarterback he’s always been on what looks to be a two-year plan. McVay’s run game, led by Kyren WIlliams, has moved decisively from inside and outside zone to the NFL’s highest rate of straight-up man-blocking (by far) to great effect. The addition of Oregon tight end Terrance Ferguson with the 46th overall pick in the second round of the 2025 draft could portend a move to 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends, two receivers), something unusual for McVay, who’s been the NFL’s most ardent 11 personnel advocate for years.
The defense is a complete bear to deal with when it comes to the front – just ask Sam Darnold about that. And now they have free-agent defensive tackle Poona Ford, and third-round Michigan edge defender Josaiah Stewart, whose 2024 tape really impressed me. The rich get richer there. Behind that, the Rams faced the league’s third-most passing attempts in dime defense, but as we’re about to see, that may change with a new cadre of linebackers.
There’s been a lot of change this offseason for the Rams, and the obvious hope is that they’ll be able to recreate their outstanding second-half surge without the unnecessary drama at the beginning. If that happens, it’s easy to see this team as more than just a default division winner.
It takes more than just the big names to get that done, of course. In the continuation of SB Nation’s “Hidden Gems” series, I take a look at one underrated veteran, free-agent acquisition, and draft pick. All three of these guys could (and should) play major roles in whatever becomes of the Rams in 2025.
Underrated veteran: CB Cobie Durant
The Rams did what they did last season despite a cornerback group that allowed 15 touchdowns to just four interceptions. The opponent completion rate (53.2%), opponent EPA per play allowed (+0.02), and opponent passer rating (87.9) for those cornerbacks weren’t quite as problematic, but there’s a reason the team is still sniffing around the idea of a Jalen Ramsey reunion. It’s also why they took a flier on former Washington Commanders first-round washout Emmanuel Forbes, for better or worse.
So, not an ideal sense of definition there at this point. But there’s one cornerback in the room whose 2024 tape is worthy of further review, and the hope should be high for 2025. That’s Cobie Durant, the 2022 fourth-rounder from South Carolina State who became a full-time starter in his second season, and saw his profile rise in 2024.
Durant’s coaches had seen that coming.
“A guy that’s really grown,” defensive coordinator Chris Shula said of Durant last August. “He’s kind of playing a lot more outside now, where his first year – I was actually the [defensive backs] coach, and he was playing more inside all the time. So, [he’s] a guy that’s really understanding. Tre White actually took him under his wing in the offseason. He’s really understanding route combinations, splits, exactly what he’s going to get, and a guy that’s just been playing consistently, and he really has all offseason.”
Durant didn’t escape McVay’s notice last preseason, either.
“He’s been outstanding,” McVay said before the season began. “He’s got such great movement, and he’s really understanding how to be able to trigger on concepts, and where those play opportunities arise. You hear me talk about that a lot, but that’s a big thing, especially based on whatever the defensive call is. He’s competitive as hell, and he really understands how to play a lot of the techniques that Aubrey’s coaching – specifically from the outside corner location. He has position flex, and he’s had as consistent a camp as anybody on the defensive side of the ball. I’ve been so pleased with Cobie Durant. He’s been awesome.”
Durant was fairly awesome last season, allowing 33 catches on 58 targets for 358 yards, 105 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, two interceptions, 10 pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 72.3. Durant was named NFC Defensive Player of the Week in Week 7 after his interception and forced fumble each led to offensive touchdowns, but his best game of the season may have come against the Buffalo Bills in Week 14, when he put Amari Cooper in a blender throughout. Durant made Secret Superstars for that one.
Whether in press or off coverage, outside or in the slot, Durant has the range, closing speed, and the aforementioned on-field acumen to improve even more in 2025, and it will be fascinating to see how that goes.
Underrated free-agent signing: WR Davante Adams
Wait. Davante Adams underrated? Everyone knows who he is, and the dude was on a Hall of Fame track in his years with the Green Bay Packers from 2014 through 2021. Adams led the NFL in touchdown catches in 2022, his first season with the Las Vegas Raiders, and then… well, things went south pretty quickly. Two and a half years after they engineered a massive trade for Adams, the Raiders shipped him off to the New York Jets on Oct. 15, 2024.
The hope was that reuniting Adams with Aaron Rodgers would provide a spark to a highly generic passing game. That didn’t really happen. Adams finished the 2024 season with 85 catches on 135 targets for 1,063 yards and eight touchdowns. Not a bad season, but what could be in store for Adams in McVay’s offense after he received no schematic help whatsoever – especially with the Jets – should have Rams fans just as giddy as Matthew Stafford appeared to be in the video below.
When the Jets used pre-snap motion last season (which wasn’t often; their 44% motion rate ranked 23rd in the league), it wasn’t ever to Adams’ advantage. The veteran didn’t have a single target when in motion last season. And under offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, Gang Green didn’t put Adams in positions to succeed with his nearly peerless route acumen with the kinds of condensed formations that Adams can blow defenses up with when they’re given – and McVay is a genius with using both motion and condensed formations together to put defenses at a disadvantage with any receiver.
“We already connected in 2019 at the Derby out in Kentucky,” Adams said of McVay on March 13, after he had signed his two-year, $44 million contract with $25 million guaranteed. “He told me at that point because I think we played you guys in 2018… he made a comment and he was just like, ‘Look man, I have a lot of respect for your game and it’d be amazing at some point to be able to team up, join forces and figure it out together on the same team.’
“At that point, you’re on a different team, so you’re like, ‘Yeah, it’d be cool one day.’ But to have it be a real thing now and him to have the opportunity to make sure that it didn’t slip away – because he certainly made sure it did not slip away. That was something that drew me even closer to the Rams, just knowing how much I was wanted. Having different players reach out too was another thing that meant a lot to me. It’s a good feeling just being wanted and knowing what you still can contribute and bring to the game.
“It’s always good when the other side of the organization views you the same way as you view yourself.”
It’s been a while since Davante Adams has had that situation; and it sounds like he and the Rams are more than ready to unleash it all. So, I’m calling Adams underrated at this point in his career because of what I believe will happen now that he has the quarterback, and the concepts, to help bring out his best.
Underrated draft pick: LB Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr.
The Rams actually got two linebackers I love in this selection process – Chris “Pooh” Paul from Ole Miss with the 172nd overall pick in the fifth round, and Buffalo’s Shaun Dolac, who for some reason went undrafted. Dolac has a place in an NFL defense, drafted or not.
On to Paul. Last season, he did it all for the Rebels with six sacks, 24 total pressures, 73 solo tackles, 54 stops, and 27 catches allowed on 33 targets for 230 yards, 277 yards after the catch, one touchdown, one interception, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 93.2.
Paul also had nine tackles for loss last season – six in the run game – and that’s a big deal for a franchise whose last on-field memory is Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley running all over its defense in that Divisional Round loss. McVay talked after that game about how Barkley especially was able to pull away at the second level, and misdirection runs put the team’s linebackers in various levels of hell all season long. Both Paul and Dolac should provide more read-and-react ability, and the athleticism to capitalize on those reads with their reactions.
Comparing Paul to Fred Warner may seem nuts, as Warner is the NFL’s best linebacker and has been for a while now, but this is more of a developmental comp. Warner was a third-round pick in the 2018 draft, and he was more of a hybrid player than a pure linebacker at BYU. You’re not always now who you will be later. Watching Paul now, and thinking of how the San Francisco 49ers have deployed Warner over time, there are a lot of similarities, and we’d guess the Rams would be pretty happy if things turn out similarly in this case.
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and Sports Info Solutions).
