How important is a good secondary for Rams success in 2025?

Can the Rams get by with the current players in the secondary?

When it comes to the Los Angeles Rams defense in 2025, there is one glaring weakness. After heading into the offseason with a need at the cornerback position, the Rams opted not to address it and move forward with the same group as last year.

While there’s still a chance the Rams trade for Jalen Ramsey, they also seem content with who they have on the roster. It’s not something that the team has ruled out, but as head coach Sean McVay has said, he feels good about where they are at when it comes to the cornerback position.

Whether or not that feeling is right or wrong is beside the point and something that the Rams will find out shortly once the season begins. For this version of the Rams defense, it is worth wondering how important a good secondary group is to the overall success. As Albert Breer recently said,

“I do think this is also a larger philosophical thing for the Rams, with much of their recent focus on building up the offensive skill spots and defensive front—areas they believe are truly impactful on wins and losses. I heard someone say that in today’s NFL, corners are more speed bumps than stop signs, and I think that might be how L.A. has come to view the position. Or at least that’s how it looks.”

Again, whether or not that philosophy is correct isn’t necessarily the point here, but it does go against how general manager Les Snead has typically built the roster. Early in Snead’s tenure, his philosophy leaned towards building the roster from the outside and in. There was more of a focus on having two solid cornerbacks on defense and paired with solid edge rushers on the outside of the defensive line. In his first draft, Snead added cornerbacks Trumaine Johnson and Janoris Jenkins. That was after adding a premier left tackle in free agency in Jake Long as well as cornerback Cortland Finnegan.

Offensively, Snead drafted wide receivers Brian Quick and Tavon Austin in back to back drafts. The following year, Snead dialed in on a high-upside tackle in Greg Robinson, and that same philosophy was carried into the first few years when Sean McVay took over as head coach.

The idea here seems to be that the Rams secondary and overall defense can be carried by the defensive front and pass rush. That’s a lot of pressure on one particular unit, but it’s the route that the Rams have opted to take with their young defense. It’s similar to how the Rams made sacrifices at other places knowing that Aaron Donald could lift those around him. The ‘Aaron Donald effect” was a real thing.

Still, in a passing league, it seems odd to make a sacrifice at a position meant to stop opposing wide receivers. Last season, the top eight teams in pass defense EPA per play made the postseason. Nine of the top-10 teams in pass defense DVOA made the playoffs. That would seem to suggest that having a top secondary would correlate to team success.

With Ahkello Witherspoon and Darious Williams as the top two cornerbacks, and not much pedigree at safety, not many will consider the Rams to have a good secondary heading into the 2025 season.

The question becomes how important is a good secondary to the overall success of a defense and how pressure rate impacts the overall ceiling. To do this, I took the bottom-five secondaries ranked by PFF over the past three years and then looked at where that team’s pass defense finished the season. Additionally, I looked at where that team ranked in pressure rate and where the overall defense finished in both EPA and DVOA.

Looking at the table, there is certainly some correlation. Out of the 15 teams that ranked inside the bottom-five heading into the season, only six of them ended ranking inside the top-20 in pass defense and seven finished in the bottom-10.

The key point here, and one that is relevant when it comes to the Rams is the pressure rate. Out of the seven teams that ranked inside the bottom-10 in pressure rate, six of them also finished inside the bottom-10 in pass defense EPA. The lone exception was the 2023 Las Vegas Raiders who are a bit of an anomaly. However, the Raiders at least had Maxx Crosby.

Three teams ranked inside the top-10 in pressure rate and the lowest ranked pass defense in EPA was the Houston Texans at 20th. Still, the Texans finished 14th in overall defense EPA.

The question here is how this all relates to the Rams defense in 2025. Ideally, they continue to have a top-10 pressure rate next season. Last year, the Rams ranked 10th at 35.6 percent. With Jared Verse heading into year two and the Rams continued additions to their defensive front, the hope would be that they can improve on that number.

If the Rams can continue to make getting after the quarterback the identity of their defense, finishing in the top-10 in pressure rate is certainly realistic. What that means for the overall defense, and pass defense specifically, is a finish inside the top-20. That would be similar to the Texans in both 2022 and 2023.

The Rams can certainly get by with limitations at the cornerback position, but it does cap their ceiling in that regard. At best, the Rams are looking at an average pass defense. It puts pressure on both the pass rushers and offense to pick up the slack. A drop-off from either group would likely put the Rams inside the bottom-10.

It’s very difficult to build a perfect roster in today’s NFL and sacrifices have to be made somewhere. For the Rams, they’ve chosen to sacrifice in the secondary in the hopes that their pass rush can elevate their ceiling. We’ll see if that was the right choice once the season begins.