Puka Nacua ranked as top-5 WR, but Braden Fiske was snubbed
If Rams fans had to guess which player on the team is ranked the highest at his position by ProFootballFocus, who would they pick? How many players do the Rams have who are even ranked top-10 at their position and where does L.A. lack starters who wouldn’t even rank in the top-32 around the entire league?
If your answers were Puka Nacua, five different top-10 starters, and holes at left guard, linebacker, and center, you would be correct.
PFF has ranked the top-32 starters at every offensive and defensive position. This is where the Rams stand at all of them.
Matthew Stafford: QB7
Here’s what PFF had to say about Stafford and rebounding from an unexpectedly underwhelming campaign in 2024:
Stafford isn’t coming off his best season — his 74.7 overall grade in 2024 reflects that — but what keeps him in this upper tier is his complete command of the Rams offense. Despite playing behind a shaky offensive line and losing multiple top weapons to injury, he was still a drive away from knocking off the eventual Super Bowl champions in the divisional round. When Stafford is locked in, he is as good as anyone in football.
Regardless, the seventh-ranked QB in the NFL is a huge compliment and would give any good team a shot to compete for the Super Bowl.
Kyren Williams: RB10
Williams is being torn between a contract extension or questions of whether or not the team should be prepared to move on with Blake Corum and Jarquez Hunter.
Williams’ 2024 PFF rushing grade (74.3) wasn’t all that impressive, but he rushed for more than 1,400 yards and generated the fourth-highest PFF WAR figure among running backs, helped by having seven games where he earned a PFF pass-blocking grade above 80.0.
Does Williams have the athleticism to be a top-5 running back?
Puka Nacua: WR5
Davante Adams: WR16
Puka Nacua is impressive for many reasons. Here he is going into year three and the former last pick of the fifth round is already one of the best all-around players in the NFL.
Is Adams still a top-20 receiver though?
Adams posted his lowest receiving grade since 2016 with a 76.8 in 2024, a concerning trend as he enters his age-32 season. Still, his elite production over the past five years warrants some benefit of the doubt — especially now that he’ll be working with Matthew Stafford and Sean McVay.
Tyler Higbee: TE26
Higbee rounds out L.A.’s skill players by just barely cracking the top-30. Will Terrence Ferguson take his place in 2026?
A.J. Jackson: OT19
Rob Havenstein: OT28
Although any team would like to have a top-5 left tackle and at least a top-20 right tackle, the Rams know very well what it’s like to not have a top-30 starter at either position. So they’ll take 19th and 28th for now.
The 33-year-old Havenstein’s best years are probably behind him. Despite earning an 80.0-plus PFF overall grade in three out of four seasons between 2018 and 2021, the Wisconsin product has failed to reach that threshold since.
Here’s what they said about the recently-extended Jackson:
In 2024, he recorded a 75.8 PFF overall grade — his second-lowest mark over the past five seasons and the 25th-ranked figure among offensive tackles. Havenstein remains among the better run-blocking offensive tackles after posting a 79.6 PFF run-blocking grade in 2024 to rank 13th among offensive tackles.
Kevin Dotson: G8
Maybe Dotson should be even higher than eighth. Steve Avila did not make the top-32, but Jonah Jackson was ranked 31st for some reason.
Coleman Shelton: C19
Rounding out the offense, the returned-to-LA Shelton just barely made the top-20 for centers.
Although the Rams would like to have more top-5 and top-10 players on offense, this order shows that they don’t have many weaknesses on that side of the ball and they have the most respected offensive coordinator in the league.
Poona Ford: DT15
Kobie Turner: DT17
Surprised that Ford is ranked higher than Turner? Here’s what PFF said about Turner:
Turner followed up a fantastic rookie season with a solid Year 2. His 74.8 PFF overall grade was good for 11th among interior defenders, and his grade as a run defender improved from 68.8 to 74.8. He recorded nine sacks in 2023 and eight in 2024.
And perhaps the underrated Poona Ford:
Ford didn’t crack PFF’s top interior defenders list last season, but he jumps all the way into the top 15 ahead of the 2025 campaign. His 85.3 PFF overall grade in 2024 ranked fifth among interior defenders.
But where’s Braden Fiske you ask? I have no idea.
Jared Verse: EDGE8
The names that didn’t make it the list are Fiske and Byron Young. But Verse has already cracked the top-8 at a priority position after only one season in the NFL.
Kam Kinchens: S20
Finally, Kinchens is the fourth — and last — starter on defense to make PFF’s top-32 at any position.
It took some time for the rookie Kinchens to break into the Rams’ lineup. He played just 83 snaps over the first seven weeks in 2024 but soon put together multiple breakout performances, recording two of the top-40 safety performances of the season. Those were a 92.6 PFF overall grade in Week 11 and an 87.8 PFF overall grade in Week 9
That means that Fiske and Young didn’t make their top-32. No linebacker or cornerback made top-32. And L.A.’s other safety didn’t make the top-32.
That’s a lot of “not top 32” players on defense. Do the Rams have the juice on defense to win the NFC West and make a deep playoff run or is PFF not able to see that their grades are lacking when it comes to L.A.’s young players on that side of the ball?
