Rams Make Second Bold Move to Reinforce Secondary

Watson, who was Trent McDuffie's teammate in Kansas City for the last four seasons, is the exact fit they needed at cornerback to complete the room. Watson, who stands at 6'2, is able to battle against bigger-bodied wide receivers, giving the Rams every skillset needed to win within their defensive backs room.

Like McDuffie, Watson is a two-time Super Bowl champion who brings a tremendous amount of veteran leadership and poise to the Rams' locker room.

Why This Move Makes Sense

After trading for and then extending McDuffie, I wondered how the Rams would address the outside cornerback position, as A.J. Brown and others remain a top threat in the NFC. Watson not only fills that need perfectly, he also provides the one thing Rams general manager Les Snead was looking for from free agency.

Snead made his intentions for free agency clear during his presser in early March. Snead was asked how the team decides which positions to focus on in free agency versus the draft.

“Just as you asked the question, I think the part that we don't know is…here's what we know, we identify players in the draft but you're not necessarily certain if they're going to be there when you pick. A lot of times, our macro philosophy is if we can use free agency to not be desperate in the draft, we more than likely will be better drafters because we're not reaching and we're not desperate. We're not going in there with a major void or major hole that has to be filled. That's usually the approach."

"It’s not always the case, but we would love to approach it where when the draft starts that Thursday night that we could pencil in a starting lineup or an opening day batting order on paper. At that point in time, we could get through that game. We could be competitive in that game. We'd like to be able to say ‘We'd have a chance to win that game more times than not.’ Then we use the draft to improve from there but not necessarily be desperate going into the draft. There's a possibility that desperation could cause you to make ‘less than decisions’ in the draft.”

With Watson's signature, the Rams do not have to reach for a cornerback in the draft, allowing the team to move forward with the freedom to select the player they want.