NFC Foe Building Roster Emulating the Rams

The Rams have rebuilt their defense with a very simple strategy. Draft good players. The 2024 Rams defense was made up of players on their rookie deals, undrafted free agents, and veteran journeymen.

Yet they were playing at a lethal level at the end of the season. The Rams found talent where no one was looking and took daring moves to rebuild the defense.

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer stated Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris is looking to build his defense in the same way his old team did.

"We covered the Atlanta Falcons’ draft class pretty extensively in the takeaways this week. I do have one more thing to add on the topic." Wrote Breer. "Before the draft, Atlanta looked at what the Rams did in 2024 to restock the defense that Raheem Morris had just left behind in L.A. as a model, with GM Les Snead and coach Sean McVay landing Jared Verse in the first round, Braden Fiske in the second round, and safety Kam Kinchens in the third round."

"Similarly, the Falcons wanted to come away with two players for their front, plus a nickel or safety, over the draft’s first two days. And it’s one reason why it was so important for the Falcons, if they were going to trade away their second-round pick in the move up to get James Pearce Jr., that they wound up with a Friday pick in return. The Rams obliged in the Falcons’ move back into the first round, sending them the 101st pick, which, interestingly, they were given for hiring Morris away from them in January 2024."

"Atlanta then packaged a 2026 fifth-rounder with No. 101 to go up to No. 96, and land Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts. So in the end, in landing both Jalon Walker and Pearce, then Watts, they got done what they wanted to get done, with their version of the Verse-Fiske-Watts troika—even if it was a little pricey to pull it off."

While that's a nice idea by the Falcons and it may work, there is one problem. The reason why Verse and Fiske were so successful was due to the work of Kobie Turner and Byron Young, two players that perpetuate the Aaron Donald mindset.

Donald set a standard for the type of players the Rams draft and the standard for them to grow, a standard Atlanta doesn't have. While the players are good, the lack of culture could bring the Falcons' efforts down.