Rams moving on from Blake Countess could benefit rookie safeties in 2019

Now that Blake Countess is no longer part of the picture, the Los Angeles Rams could see rookie safeties Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott benefit from the move.

Back in 2016, the Los Angeles Rams signed Blake Countess to their practice squad following his release from the Philadelphia Eagles before the safety was eventually promoted to the 53-man roster later that season.

Coincidentally, Countess is back on the team that originally drafted him three years ago after the Eagles claimed the safety off waivers following his release from the Rams, who were hoping to see the former sixth-round pick take a pay cut.

Only time will tell when it comes to seeing if Los Angeles will regret their decision to move on from Countess, but from an overall perspective, this seems like the right choice for the NFC champions.

As bad as it sounds, Countess seems like the kind of player who can easily be replaced, and the Rams never would have made the move if they didn’t feel confident in others being capable of stepping up on defense.

In fact, with the Rams recently using two of their picks from the 2019 NFL Draft to add Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott to the roster, the rookies could benefit the most from the departure of Countess during their first season in the league.

Rightfully so, Rapp seems to have the upper hand over Scott at the moment since Los Angeles was willing to use a second-round pick on the Washington standout for a reason, and hopes to see him eventually earn a starting role down the road.

Still, one of the best parts about the NFL is how players like Scott selected in the later rounds could always end up making surprise impacts as rookies against all odds, which the Rams would obviously love more than anything.

Keep in mind that Los Angeles never would have selected Rapp or Scott if they didn’t see some sort of potential after spending months doing their homework on the two rookies.

So now that Countess is officially out of the picture, and the Rams have one less player at safety, it will be interesting to see whether Rapp and Scott take advantage of the situation since the opportunity for additional playing time could be there.