The Los Angeles Rams have a very young defense that developed nicely in 2024. However, it still has a lot of flaws heading into 2025.
While the defensive front and edge rushers are great, the Rams’ secondary, inside linebackers and safeties are the biggest concerns, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. L.A. didn’t bring in any star power to fortify those units yet and may not before the season begins.
As such, Pro Football Network didn’t rank the Rams’ defense very highly based on its Defense+ metric. PFN projects the Rams to have the No. 24 defense in the league this year, right in front of the Dallas Cowboys.
“That’s now three straight bottom-10 Defense+ seasons for the Rams, and there isn’t much help for an instant fix,” PFN’s Kyle Soppe wrote. “Aaron Donald isn’t returning, and Los Angeles used just one pick in the first four rounds on this side of the ball.
“The Rams overcame this flaw and won 10 games the previous season. This weakness caps their ceiling in a significant way, and it projects to be the case again over the next six months.”
This is the biggest problem with the Rams’ 2025 aspirations. The offense is great and the defense proved late in the season that it can contend with good teams. But that alone won’t fix the issues that ended the season in the Divisional Round. Poona Ford, Nate Landman and two rookies won’t solve every problem, even if the quartet of Jared Verse, Braden Fiske, Byron Young and Kobie Turner is incredible.