LA Rams act to ensure new DC Raheem Morris succeeds

Whatever the LA Rams had agreed to pay new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, they are getting a bargain. Morris cannot really catch a break here. If he has a great defense? He inherited it. If he has a bad defense? That dude can’t coach a lick. And if he has a so-so defense? The scrutiny will only amplify.

Is there any situation more difficult than replacing someone who has just gone out on top? Rock bands who must follow a blazingly hot act on stage, perhaps. It’s even more daunting if you know you’re taking over the reins from someone who was highly respected and successful.

And yet, LA Rams’ new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris is being asked to do exactly that.

He’s been tasked with filling the very big over-sized shoes of the now-departed Brandon Staley, who left the Rams and the No. 1 ranked defense in the NFL in his rear-view mirror last year to take the helm of that other football team in Tinseltown, the Los Angeles Chargers.

How can Morris outdo a top-ranked defense?

A key will be for Morris to not even try to take on his predecessor’s personality or leadership style. Just be unapologetically himself, focus on his strengths and be confident in knowing what he brings to the role. There’s no time for questioning your own capabilities or whether you have what it takes to meet the lofty standard set by your predecessor.

Rams fans might be well advised to throttle back any expectations for Morris to pay it forward, to maintain that same degree of a stingily stalwart defense, to produce more of the same in the upcoming season. And while he has pledged to retain as much of what worked for the Rams defense in 2020, he’s missing John Johnson III and Troy Hill from the secondary and inherits a sub-par linebacking corps, to boot.

Nevertheless, his cupboard is not so barren. There’s plenty of arrows in his defensive quiver of options. He’s been bequeathed key defensive pillars in Aaron Donald, Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams, Jordan Fuller, and Sebastian Joseph Day. Certainly, such foundational talent is poised to be no less than a Top-10 defense.

Rams’ have Morris’ back

And the Rams’ recent moves, most notably to bring Restricted Free Agent (RFA), DB Darious Williams, back, made more than just economic sense. It signaled the team’s intent that they want Morris to succeed in his new role.

It is a telling observation that the Rams made a deliberate and pointed effort to re-sign defensive players, whereas in the previous year they concentrated on resigning offensive types, allowing defenders to walk away in free agency. Didn’t re-sign a one.

Most importantly, the Rams’ recent maneuver to keep OLB Leonard Floyd in the fold, whom the Rams had to bite the financial bullet hard on a four-year deal to do so, also telegraphs their desire to surround Morris with the players he needs to not just achieve, but maintain that same 2020 level of defensive excellence.

The veteran Floyd is like the pace car of the Indianapolis 500. His presence brings a certain continuity and cohesion to the Rams’ defensive equation. He’s a key element, a link Morris needed to hitch his own defensive stamp on top of Staley’s. Floyd embodies grit and excellence, both trademarks of the type of defense Raheem Morris wants to deploy.

A diverse defense this will be

This Rams defense can throw the Tampa-two, the Fangio/Staley two-deep cover shells, the cover-one, and the cover-three at the opposition at any turn. And the Rams committed themselves to re-sign the very players required to help Morris do just that.

Before he took the Rams gig, Morris was thrown into the chaotic maelstrom of the Atlanta Falcons to fill in as the interim head coach of the team after head coach Dan Quinn got off to an O-5 start. He took over a team where the defense was virtually non-existent last year, ranking 29th out of 32 teams. There was nowhere to go but upwards in that sinkhole of a roster.

Morris did what he could with a team that had multiple vacancies and throw-a-rock-in any direction multiple areas to work on – mainly defensively, too – and guided the team to a 4-7 record for the rest of the regular season.

His experience as head coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011 and before that, as an assistant coach for the Falcons, Washington Football Team, and Buccaneers should provide him with ample storehouse of knowledge and sage football wisdom to rely on.

And the fact that the Rams chose to support him so well by retaining key links to the Staley-Fangio defense does, indeed, bode well for the Rams’ upcoming season.