When it comes to Week 1 in the NFL, it’s very easy to overreact as it’s the only thing that we’ve seen in the 2025 season. However, it’s important to remember that what the Los Angeles Rams are in Week 1 is not what they’ll be in Week 6. Teams will make schematic and personnel changes. The rust will come off and players will start to hit their stride. Here are five Rams overreactions from Week 1.
1. Rams still just a one-player backfield
Over the past two drafts, the Rams have spent decent draft capital at the running back position. They spent a top-100 pick on Blake Corum in 2024 and then a top-125 pick on Jarquez Hunter back in April. Despite that, the Rams signed Kyren Williams in the offseason to an extension before the season. In Week 1, Williams had 18 carries to Corum’s one and Hunter was inactive.
The idea with the Rams run game this offseason was to get Corum more involved and then potentially sprinkle in Hunter as a change of pace, explosive running back. By keeping Williams fresh, he also may be more capable of hitting a big play. Over the last two years, Williams and the Rams run game have lacked explosiveness and variance. That’s not a knock on Williams, but rather who he is as a player. We’ll likely never see a true 50-50 split between Williams and Corum. However, it would be nice to see more of a split than in Week 1.
A thing to remember here is that when McVay likes a running back, that player tends to see a strong majority of the carries. Ideally, Corum is able to be more in the 4-6 touch range moving forward and Sunday was a case of it being a tough opponent. If the Rams are going to keep Williams fresh over 17 games, they need to get Corum involved.
2. The Offensive Line is Worst in the NFL
By most metrics, the Rams offensive line was the worst in the NFL in Week 1 against the Texans. That’s never something that you want to see. At the same time, the Texans defensive line is one of the stronger units in the NFL. While the Rams were bad in pass protection, they did hold their own in the run game. As a unit, they ranked sixth in run-block win-rate.
This is something to monitor over the next few weeks. It won’t get much easier against a strong Tennessee Titans defensive line before playing the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 3. The Rams consistently helped their tackles by chipping with a tight end or running back. Additionally, Beaux Limmer had to step in at both guard spots and struggled in pass protection. Multiple things can be true. The Rams offensive line isn’t the worst in the NFL, but they also need to be better than they were on Sunday.
Two rookies who many were excited about heading into the season were Terrance Ferguson and Jarquez Hunter. It was expected that Ferguson would take over some of the Cooper Kupp things in the offense while Hunter added some explosiveness to the run game.
Fast forward to Week 1 and Ferguson didn’t play a single offensive snap and Hunter was inactive. In Hunter’s case, he was inactive in favor of a running back that was on the practice squad. It’s far too early to get concerned and the Rams tend to play it slow with rookies. In Ferguson’s case, he spent some of the offseason injured. Hunter may need to get better on special teams and improve in pass pro to become a game day player. This will be something to revisit in Week 6 or after the Bye Week.
4. Offense picked up where it left off in 2024
The Rams offense finished the 2024 season as one of the worst in the NFL. In Weeks 15-17, the Rams offense failed to score more than 20 points, ranked 20th in EPA per play and 16th in success rate. The last time the Rams scored a first quarter touchdown in the regular season was Week 14 last season against the Buffalo Bills. Offensively, the Rams scored on their final drive of the first half and opening drive of the second half. Turnovers and penalties took points off the board, but those things simply can’t happen.
In Week 1, the Rams offense ranked 23rd in EPA per play and 22nd in success rate and DVOA had them 17th. Only 22.2 percent of their drives resulted in scores which ranked 29th. They were 14th in yards per play, but struggled sustaining drives. Their 18 first downs were tied for 19th. More is expected out of the offense, but it is worth noting the caliber of defense that they were playing. This game easily could have been 20-9 or 24-9 without the mistakes. The Rams offense needs to find ways to score more points, but there’s nothing to be concerned about here just yet.
Coming into the Texans game, it was known that the Rams had a huge advantage along the defensive line. Jared Verse would be going up against Cam Robinson or Aireontae Ersery which would be a significant mismatch. The expectation was that Verse would end up with multiple sacks and be dominant. However, Verse didn’t have a single sack and was quiet on the stat sheet.
However, when it comes to Verse, it’s important to look past the stat sheet with him. Verse is similar to Aaron Donald in the sense that he creates so much for those around him. That also doesn’t mention that he ranked second among edge rushers against the run in Week 1. Verse was 14th in pass rush win rate and second in run-stop win-rate. He had four pressures and consistently got chipped, double-teamed, or sometimes triple-teamed. Donald notoriously started slow throughout his career. In his 20.5 sack season, he didn’t record a sack until Week 4. Verse will end up in the sack column, but it’s important to remember that Verse is just as good off the ball as he is making plays on the ball.
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