{"id":98858,"date":"2025-06-02T20:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/98858\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T20:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T20:12:11","slug":"this-young-rams-defender-could-be-the-teams-breakout-summer-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/98858\/","title":{"rendered":"This young Rams defender could be the team’s breakout summer star"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a> have a long way to go before the 2025 NFL season begins, which opens up a lot of opportunities for players to shine over the summer.<\/p>\n

And with a few key positions still up in the air, anything can happen. The biggest battles will be on the defensive side of the ball, especially at linebacker. Although Omar Speights and Troy Reeder are expected to start at inside linebacker, Bleacher Report’s Alex Ballentine<\/a> writes that 2025 fifth-rounder Chris Paul Jr. could surprise many and take control of the position.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes a summer breakout comes at the intersection of talent, timing and opportunity,” Ballentine wrote. “Paul slid to the third day of the draft, but his landing spot is going to give him an opportunity to shine right away.<\/p>\n

“The Rams have a clear need for more juice in the linebacking corps, and Paul is one of the few options who can bring it. … It might not take long for that to start to show.”<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Paul Jr. has often been dubbed a “steal” and\/or a “sleeper” of the draft based on his credentials. He finished with 118 solo tackles and 9.5 sacks in three college seasons \u2014 two at Arkansas and one at Ole Miss. There is a lot to like about the young Paul Jr., but he’ll have to prove himself early to move up the depth chart ahead of some veteran talent.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams rookie named potential breakout star<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams have a long way to go before the 2025 NFL season begins, which opens…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[25653,8226,1606,7,1014,58,2444,2611,6,8800,424,8801],"class_list":{"0":"post-98858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-alex-ballentine","9":"tag-bleacher-report","10":"tag-chris-paul","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-los-angeles-rams","14":"tag-losangeles","15":"tag-losangelesrams","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-omar-speights","18":"tag-rams","19":"tag-troy-reeder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114615598772232560","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}