The Los Angeles Rams made the controversial move on Tuesday during roster cutdowns to cut fifth-round pick, linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. Whether or not that was the correct move is something that we’ll find out in upcoming years. However, for this version of the Rams roster, it was a move that the team felt was the right one.
Still, despite Paul being drafted with the fifth-to-last pick in the fifth round, you would have thought that the Rams had just cut a Pro Bowl caliber player. There was less of a negative reaction when the Rams inexplicably traded Ernest Jones last offseason for the equivalent of peanuts.
While the Rams opted to keep a linebacker group of Nate Landman, Omar Speights, Troy Reeder, and Shaun Dolac, many will take Paul being cut as opting to cut him over Troy Reeder. The fact of the matter is, it was never Reeder or Paul. It was always between Paul and Dolac. At the end of the day, it was the undrafted free agent that beat out the rookie draft pick.
That doesn’t make cutting Paul any less disappointing or Reeder being on the roster any less frustrating. It’s simply how the coaching staff viewed the linebacker position group. Reeder is an experienced player that the coaching staff can be comfortable with in a depth role. Speights and Landman are the starters, but to have two rookies behind them would have been a risk. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula even said as much,
“He’s a guy that we can trust. If God forbid anything happened, he’s the guy that could just seamlessly go in. He has been in the system. I’ve been his linebacker coach a couple of different times and know him very well.”
Having that known commodity and experience as depth is something that the coaching staff valued. Nobody can say for certain that Paul was definitively better than Reeder, even if he potentially had more upside. The Rams have tackled the offseason with the mindset of having a high floor at certain positions, especially if that player is a known commodity. It’s how they also approached center by re-signing Coleman Shelton instead of starting Beaux Limmer again.
It’s clear that Paul simply didn’t work out or wasn’t the fit that the Rams thought he might have been. Had Paul simply needed time to develop, the Rams may have opted to sign him to the practice squad as he cleared waivers. Instead, the Rams chose not to do so, opting to keep Elias Neal while Paul signed with the Seattle Seahawks.
Every team passed on Paul multiple times and a big reason for that was that he is a size anomaly. Paul’s arm-length at the NFL Combine measured in sub-30 inches which is in the first percentile for linebackers. That’s not to say that Paul can’t have success, but arm length is an important trait for linebackers when it comes to shedding blocks. This was a concern of his coming out of Ole Miss. The Athletic’s Dane Brugler said that Paul’s, “shorter arms limit his take-on ability and leaves him engulfed by offensive linemen (and some tight ends).” Said The 33rd Team’s Kyle Crabbs,
“Paul Jr. has short arms and a compact frame, leaving him with less margin for error in challenging ball carriers and placing greater emphasis on his approach to first contact. Without good discipline and control, he will overrun or play himself out of position…Paul Jr. can be suckered and pulled out of leverage positions with misdirection plays or when forced to try to read the action through a mass of bodies. He can be overly eager to press a gap, and patient backs can manipulate his position.”
Pooh Paul was never the finished product without physical or mental limitations. Heading into the offseason, there were a lot of expectations for Paul and some thought that he could start Week 1, or at the every least, be a pillar at the position moving forward. Instead, he didn’t make it through the offseason. Still, it’s worth remembering that Paul was taken with the fifth-to-last pick in the fifth round. The pick that he was taken with was a compensatory selection. There’s a reason that Paul dropped that far.
It didn’t help that Paul was labeled as a draft steal. Pro Football Focus labeled him as one of the biggest steals of day three. Some went as far as to call him a ‘future All-Pro.’ Brock Vierra of Sports Illustrated said at the time,
“Paul has a tremendously bright future in Los Angeles. He’s a great player with fantastic instincts. Do you know what they call an undersized linebacker that plays like an All-Pro? An All-Pro, and Paul has potential All-Pro written all over him…Paul is a future signal caller and captain. He will be the steal of the NFL Draft.”
That’s not a knock on Pro Football Focus or Vierra. It’s simply part of the media cycle that we fall into every year. Draft steals are supposed to be rare, yet every other pick on day three of the draft is a “steal”. Looking at the first three picks of the seventh-round in the 2025 NFL Draft and Jay Toia, Jack Nelson, and Thomas Fidone have at least one mention from draft analysts/media of being a draft steal or potential draft steal.
Are there any more steals if every player is a steal? The term “draft steal” has become overused and unnecessarily places a label and expectations on a player in which it probably isn’t warranted.
Again, if a player is taken late in the draft, they were likely selected there for a reason. That doesn’t mean that steals don’t exists. A prime example of that would be the Rams finding Puka Nacua in the fifth-round. However, finding Nacua in the fifth-round is much more the exception than the norm at that point in the draft.
That doesn’t make cutting Paul hurt any less or make it any less of a disappointment. As mentioned previously, it simply wasn’t the fit that the Rams envisioned and this is a front office that doesn’t deter from admitting mistakes when they’re made. Given that the Rams didn’t opt to bring Paul back on the practice squad, it’s fair to say that it just wasn’t a fit.
From the outside, we don’t know that the Rams definitely could have gotten Troy Reeder on the practice squad. It’s hard to definitively say that Paul was better than Reeder. To say that would be to imply that the Rams front office and coaching staff is actively keeping worse players on the roster.
The Rams getting it right on Shaun Dolac makes getting it wrong with Paul an easier pill to swallow. It’s not necessarily a result of the Rams not investing in the linebacker position. They still have a young, promising linebacker to develop behind Landman and Speights while potentially becoming an ace on special teams. That’s still something to be excited about at the linebacker position.
74 CommentsSee More:
