Success of Rams' Defensive Unit Rests on Play of Five Men

Recently, NFL Network's Steve Wyche asked the question everyone wants to know. Will the five men in the Rams' secondary be good enough to capitalize on the strength of the defensive line?

"The team I think everyone is looking at is the Los Angeles Rams, because look, they almost beat Philadelphia in the playoffs last year," stated Wyche. "It could have been them representing the NFC in the Super Bowl but the big question for them is, can their workman like secondary, which has a lot of good players, take advantage of that dominant front five that they have?"

"You look at the secondary, safeties like Quentin Lake, you've got Ahkello Witherspoon, Cobie Durant, Kam Kinchens, Kam Curl, Darious Williams, they've got players back there, right? But then you look up front, Poona Ford, who's going to be a huge addition. He's gonna be one of those guys we're talking about, literally one of the best free agent acquisitions of the offseason, joins Braden Fiske, Kobie Turner, Jared Verse, and Byron Young. If this secondary can start getting more and more takeaways, whether it's forced fumbles, whether it's interceptions, this defense could be one of the better defenses in the NFC and the Rams with all the weapons on the offense, let's not forget, they got Davante Adams a wide receiver."

"They could be a Super Bowl contender. But here's one thing I talked to Sean McVay about this that you know I talked about the workmen like guys in the secondary, they could have had gotten play for Jaire Alexander and Jalen Ramsey. They opted not to. Part of it was financial. Part of it was they like the guys that they have."

The good news is that the Rams have turnover-inducing defensive backs. Kam Curl is known for popping the football out, Kinchens and Jaylen McCollough had four interceptions each as rookies, and Ahkello Witherspoon's hands might be the most underrated in the NFL for defensive backs.

McVay has continually stated he likes the players they have in the secondary so the challenge will be on the Rams coaching staff to figure out which five defensive backs they want on the field, as they have a core group of veterans like Williams, Witherspoon, Lake, and Curl with youthful talent in Kinchens, McCollough, Durant, Emmanuel Forbes and others while Derion Kendrick, Josh Wallace, Shaun Jolly and several other defensive backs fight for their spot of the 53-man roster.

So, who do the Rams go with?