Rams Defensive Triplets Compared to NFL's Best

Recently Sports Illustrated's Gilberto Manzano ranked the NFL's top defensive triplets, selecting the best player at each level of the defense for each team, then ranking them against their NFL bretheren. Manzano, not high on the Rams, chose Verse, Speights, and Kinchens, ranking them 23rd in the NFL, the worst among the NFC West.

"Verse established himself as one of the top edge rushers in the NFL after running away with the Defensive Rookie of the Year award," wrote Manzano. "The Rams are loaded with pass rushers, but they have a thin group at inside linebacker and cornerback. Perhaps the team’s solid safety rotation can pick up the slack in the back end."

All I am going to say is this about the Rams' defense and the three defenders named by Manzano. The Rams' defense went supernova as soon as Speights was inserted into the starting lineup. I also don't think it was a coincidence that the defense got better, more specifically the defensive secondary, especially Kinchens, once Speights became a full-time starter.

Manzano also added this in his opening remarks.

"Last year, I listed Devin White, not Zack Baun, as the Eagles’ best inside linebacker, but in my defense, no one saw Baun turning into a first-team All-Pro last season. So with that in mind, I listed a few surprises for this year’s rankings with the hope of some of them becoming the latest breakout players in the NFL."

In the same way Baun rose to being an All-Pro, I think Speights will take a similar jump, receiving end-of-season honors. In fact, expect a new level of efficiency from the Rams' defense in 2025, especially from Verse after he made these recent comments about playing off his teammates.

"Definitely. You’ve got to learn your ops [opportunities] before anything. You’ve got to learn[when] I can take a high rush here, or no, it’s just my job to eat the double team, or the chip’s coming my way. I’ve just got to learn to force that or try and get past that. So, you’ve got to learn your opportunities—that’s the number one thing. But then you also got to learn who you’re rushing with."

"Rushing with Kobie and rushing with Fiske—they’re both athletic rushers, but they rush very differently. Rushing with me and rushing with ‘BY’ [Byron Young] are two completely different things. So they have to learn the difference between us two. Now I have to learn the difference between them two. Now I’ve got to learn the difference between rushing with [RookieDE] Ty [Hamilton] and rushing with Fiske, and they have to learn the difference between rushing with [Rookie OLB] Josaiah [Stewart] and rushing with me."