3 reasons why Rozeboom and Moncrief earn LA Rams ILB spots

Reason II

Much of what the LA Rams are looking for is the need for players who can develop who have plenty of upside potential. So how can the Rams ensure that upside? Well, the look for players who excel in situations of reasonably even-sided competition. That is the goal each year. Suffice it to say that both Christian Rozeboom and Derrick Moncrief have cleared that hurdle.

Once players join the team, it’s open competition. It’s their ability to work hard, execute drills, and show up in practice and scrimmages. It’s not easy, and the LA Rams front office certainly did their part to stockpile prospects for the team to sort through in 2020. It was a tough gauntlet. A virtual training camp followed by a crash course in NFL football. Not many undrafted players survived, because they didn’t stand much of a chance.

But both Christian Rozeboom and Derrick Moncrief did. They survived the cuts and were re-added to the team’s practice squad. But it didn’t end there. With a season filled with injuries, and COVID-19 I/R, the Rams continued to be very active in roster transactions for the entire season. Any weakness or regression by either player would have resulted in their names appearing on the waiver wire.

Defenses are hard to synchronize in terms of player production. The blend of veterans and youth place everyone on different timelines in terms of peaking.  The way the Rams work-around that challenge is to coach up players who arrive raw to ‘fast track’ them in terms of NFL readiness. In short, they make up the difference in term of investing time and coaching into players who are undrafted in one year,