Los Angeles Rams: 5 concerns still surrounding team after Jalen Ramsey trade

Despite the excitement surrounding the Jalen Ramsey trade, there are still concerns surrounding the Los Angeles Rams.

In what could end up being one of the biggest surprise trades of the 2019 season, the Los Angeles Rams acquired Jalen Ramsey from the Jacksonville Jaguars on Tuesday to provide the defense with arguably the best cornerback in the NFL.

Dating back to last season, the Rams have established a reputation for being in “win now” mode with the approach of bringing any player on board that seems capable of putting the team in the best position possible to make a run at the Super Bowl.

While it was great to see this method almost work last year after Los Angeles came up short in the Super Bowl this past February to the New England Patriots, Tuesday’s move to land Ramsey shows the Rams are still willing to make the big moves now.

Of course, just because Los Angeles struck gold by landing Ramsey doesn’t necessarily mean they’re guaranteed to be successful moving forward, and earn another trip to the Super Bowl.

If anything, the addition of Ramsey arguably adds more pressure to the Rams when it comes to living up to the new expectations with the star cornerback on board, as the star cornerback coming on board has Los Angeles talking Super Bowl hype once again.

Now that Ramsey to Los Angeles is official, it only seems fair to take a closer look at some of the concerns that are still there surrounding the Rams since as great as this move is, the defending NFC champions still have numerous areas to address moving forward.

5. No first-round picks until 2022

Depending on whether the Rams decide to pull off a trade when the time comes, in order to convince the Jaguars to give up Ramsey, Los Angeles was forced to give up first-round picks in 2020 and 2021 as part of the deal.

When taking into consideration that Los Angeles has yet to have a first rounder during the Sean McVay era after going without one over the last three drafts, most fans would assume this wouldn’t be an issue.

But of course, this is always easier said than done for a team like the Rams since those future draft picks most likely would have helped fill a few areas in need of help, especially the offensive line.

Still, if things go according to plan with Ramsey in Los Angeles, and the star cornerback helps the defense elevate things to a new level moving forward, giving up two future draft picks in the first round will seem worth it.

Plus, as mentioned before, there’s always the chance of the Rams pulling off another surprise move or two down the road to earn another first-round pick if they have certain players in mind when the time comes, even if this sounds like a long shot to happen.

4. Gurley still isn’t himself at running back

Early on in the offseason, the Rams made it clear they would be taking a different approach with Todd Gurley at running back after his performances in the NFC Championship and Super Bowl last winter made it clear something was going on with the running back.

After finding out that Gurley’s knee was in fact the issue, Los Angeles has done their best to limit the running back’s workload as much as possible in 2019, but also it’s caught up to the team in recent weeks.

It was one thing for the Rams to get by the first three games with Gurley only receiving 44 carries since the most important factor was Los Angeles finished 3-0, but the lack of carries have caught up to the offense the last few weeks.

Not only did Gurley combine for just 20 carries (five carries in Week 4) in two losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks, but unfortunately the running back was forced to miss last weekend’s contest against the San Francisco 49ers with a quad injury.

Until Gurley can prove to handle at least 20 carries in a game without any concerns, the ground game is going to be an issue for the Rams, which has previously been a major strength on offense in previous years.

3. Offensive line continues to be an issue

After earning respect as one of the top units over the previous two seasons, the offensive line of the Rams has taken an unfortunate step back in 2019, and it’s certainly hurt Jared Goff in a big way when it comes to the passing game.

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Just take a look at the Week 6 loss for Los Angeles to the San Francisco 49ers in which Goff only threw for 78 yards despite completing 13 passes, and it shows the offensive line has been a major issue for the Rams this season.

As great of an addition as Ramsey is going to be on the defensive side of the football, the unit can only do so much on their own without the proper support from their teammates on offense.

Until the offensive line begins to show some sort of improvement to take pressure off Goff under center along with being able to establish a strong ground game like previous years, the frustration on offense is going to continue to be there.

Even worse, it could prevent Los Angeles from getting back on the winning track while making things more difficult to compete for a playoff spot in the NFC, which Rams fans obviously don’t want to see at all.

2. Rams still trail in NFC West standings

From a competitive standpoint, the Rams would love nothing more than to see the addition of Ramsey to the NFC West put the team in the best position possible to earn a third NFC West title in a row, although that’s easier said than done at the moment.

As a result of three losses in a row, Los Angeles currently sits in third place when it comes to the NFC West standings, trailing the undefeated 49ers and 5-1 Seahawks.

For a team with Super Bowl expectations at the beginning of the season, and jumped out to a hot 3-0 start, no one expected the Rams to be sitting at 3-3 entering their Week 7 contest against the Atlanta Falcons, but here they are.

Since there is still plenty of time remaining in the regular season, the Rams should feel confident in their chances of still being able to finish on top of the division, even if it would require a lot to happen over the next few months.

But no matter what, Los Angeles will be facing heavy pressure moving forward since their current position in the division standings mean they will most likely be playing catch up the rest of the way.

1. Rams still dealing with injuries on defense

When it was first announced that Los Angeles was sending Marcus Peters to the Baltimore Ravens in a trade, there was some immediate concern by the fan base over why the Rams would make this move since they were already hurting on defense.

Between Aqib Talib heading to IR on Monday due to a rib injury on top of the recent news surrounding John Johnson‘s injury, it didn’t seem like a good idea for the Rams to trade their best cornerback at the time in Peters.

Of course, if Los Angeles fans knew this was all part of the plan to eventually land Ramsey, they most likely wouldn’t have been questioning the decision as much.

But even with Ramsey officially part of the picture, other members on defense will still need to step up for the Rams to help make up for some of the injuries the unit has been dealing with.

After seeing how the rest of the NFC is shaping up, it’s no secret that Los Angeles will need to step up their game on defense just to have a fighting chance against some of these high-powered offenses.

The Rams will obviously feel much better once certain players like Talib get healthy enough to return, but also they still need to figure out some sort of plan to get by until then.