LA Rams S Marqui Christian remains FA after Jets decline

LA Rams’ free agent, S Marqui Christian, fails to sign with Jets and is back on the market. Will the Rams play white knight once more?

The LA Rams watched patiently as their players reached handshake-agreements to sign with other NFL teams via free agency. Of course, those handshake agreements would have been translated in any normal NFL offseason.  COVID-19 has changed the way the NFL does business.

With social distancing the new norm to limit the spread of the very infectious disease, NFL teams are prohibited from conducting medical examinations of either NFL or NCAA players at their team facilities.  Once again, the restriction imposed upon NFL teams to counter the spread of the COVID-19 disease seems to have derailed another Rams’ player’s plans to sign a new deal with another NFL team. The Baltimore Ravens were all but signed to a new contract with LA Rams veteran Michael Brockers.

But their medical exam flagged a high ankle sprain which the LA Rams had fully documented. That flag justified the Ravens declining to sign Brockers, which opened the door for the Rams to jump in and sign Brockers to a similar deal.

Now the New York Jets have followed a similar path. After reaching a gentleman’s agreement with LA Rams reserve safety Marqui Christian, they too have suddenly had a change of heart. The Jets have suddenly declined to sign a contract with Christian.

Will the Rams re-sign Marqui Christian to a deal as well?  It does make sense for them to consider bringing the 5-foot-11 207-pound reserve safety back to the team in 2020. After all, the Rams have lost starting safety Eric Weddle to retirement, and slot cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman due to opting out of the final contract year.

Deep discussion

As it stands, the Rams haven’t much in the way of depth right now on their defense. Behind the two presumed starting safeties John Johnson and Taylor Rapp, the team will be relying upon second-year safety Nick Scott from Penn State University. As a rookie, Scott was a significant contributor to special teams.  The second, Jake Gervase is a 2019 undrafted free agent signing who is also returning for his second season. Gervase played on special teams last year, which means the team is looking for a significantly larger role out of both second-year players.

The Rams should give stronger priority to retaining experience on defense, as both Scott and Gervase are developmental rookies who suddenly find themselves thrust into significant playing time in 2020 simply due to the team’s depth chart.  Christian has had a larger role on the Rams’ defense and would be an insurance policy that the team avoids simply anointing either Scott or Gervase to the field simply because they are on the roster.

The Rams failed to retain some solid contributors to the roster so far. Here is a mulligan, and “do-over” opportunity, and the team should take full advantage of it.  What is the value of “stretching the field” if the team cannot hold the opponent from scoring?  Few highly-paid players stepped up on the offense in 2019. Hopefully, 2020 will redistribute some of the wealth to pay for the lesser players on defense who likely have a bigger say in the outcome of a game.