Cornerback Contentment: Why Rams Aren’t Desperate to Add to Position

Some teams view certain positions as more Mazda than Maserati. For the Rams, that position is cornerback.

“The Rams’ approach to filling the position in recent years has been interesting,” Sports Illustrated senior NFL writer Albert Breer said Wednesday is his weekly mailbag segment. “The projected starters right now are a couple guys that came in as reclamation projects, in Ahkello Witherspoon and Darious Williams (who returned after starting his career in Los Angeles).

“But 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.”

How it looks is likely the reason Jalen Ramsey isn’t back on the Rams’ roster. Head coach Sean McVay said this week at the team’s Maui minicamp that acquiring Ramsey in a trade from Miami has encountered its own brand of speedbumps.

“Definitely don't want to rule anything out because we're always open-minded to onboarding and acquiring quality players and people like him if we're able to do that,” McVay said Tuesday, referring to Ramsey. “But there would be some obstacles that are real that are in the place of maybe preventing that from occurring.”

Preventing touchdowns from occurring, at least during the second half of the year in 2024, was the Rams’ fantastic defensive front, not their cornerbacks. McVay and general manager Les Snead have clearly prioritized edge rusher, defensive line and safety above other positions on that side of the ball, including off-ball linebacker and cornerback.

They’ve taken one cornerback over the last three years, Tre’Vius Tomlinson in the sixth round of the 2023 draft. The fact that Tomlinson’s uncle is Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson certainly helped, although the young DB spent all of last season on injured reserve and joined the 49ers after Los Angeles waived him in March.

The Rams don’t strike fear in opposing passers with Witherspoon, Williams, Emmanuel Forbes, Cobie Durant and nickelback Quentin Lake. Derion Kendrick, another Day 3 draft pick, rejoined the group this week. And non-drafted free agent Charles Woods is no Charles Woodson.

But the Rams also believe in affecting quarterbacks with pressure more than coverage, and that approach has produced a lot of fruit since the team pivoted to the draft-and-develop paradigm in 2022. That approach also was evident in how the team built through free agency and the draft.

The organization waited more than week into free agency to re-sign Witherspoon, who made several impactful contributions last season. Then, Los Angeles didn’t draft a cornerback. There’s no need to fix something the team doesn’t view as broken.

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