2021 LA Rams success hinges on these untested players

At a time of fiscal crunch, the LA Rams will be turning to younger players this year to make up the difference on the roster. And fiscal crunch certainly applies to the 2021 NFL season. This season was unlike any the NFL has faced in a very long time. Unlike the challenge of other years where the salary cap growth may not have matched expectations, the 2021 NFL salary cap shrank.

As in the cap is much less in 2021 than it was in 2020. That’s a tough event to effectively plan for.

Well, the Rams were not as unprepared as many might make them out to be. While the team certainly did not have a sack of cash to sign NFL Free Agents to the roster, the Rams had prepared for the drought of salary cap precipitation by ensuring some depth to the roster last year.

Whether by draft or signing undrafted players, the team did stockpile a nice talent cache for the 2021 season. Players who are not featured below, but who will certainly contribute to the mix include OT Tremayne Anchrum, OLB Justin Hollins, LB Derrick Moncrief, and Christian Rozeboom, WR Trishton Jackson and J.J. Koski, DL Eric Banks, Michael Hoecht, Jonah Williams, and QB Bryce Perkins.

But the Rams have five players on the current roster who either had a minor role in 2020, or no role at all, who are uniquely queued to contribute significantly to the team in 2021. Who are they? Let’s meet them all.

The vital five

The LA Rams added speedster RB Raymond Calais off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers waiver wire. As we discussed in a previous article, the Rams need speed in the return game. If they can harness Calais in that role, the return game will get a huge booster shot for the 2021 NFL Season.

Despite missing the entire 2020 season to injury, ILB Travin Howard still remains on the inside track to win a starting job at the heart of the Rams defense this year. And the Rams choice to bring him back, while seemingly a small decision, could prove to be a very big deal this year.

While he didn’t see action in 2020, RB Xavier Jones is the most likely to step into the offensive role vacated by veteran running back Malcolm Brown. He was a scoring machine for SMU and hopes to carry that ability to get to the end zone into his professional football career.

While the Rams were not happy to lose valued tight end Gerald Everett to the Seattle Seahawks in free agency, the addition of tight end Brycen Hopkins via the 2020 NFL Draft almost sealed his fate. Hopkins is a big-bodied, mud-moving son-of-a-gun who loves to make circus catches. He’ll get his chance this year, as new quarterback Matthew Stafford loves to throw to big bodies.

While you may question the inclusion of WR Van Jefferson on this list, keep in mind that Jefferson was nearly a non-factor the entire season. That should dramatically change for the 2021 NFL season. A year ago, we believed that Van Jefferson holds 1,000-yard potential, and that still holds true. Jefferson had to share the targets with too many other offensive players in 2020. Josh Reynolds, Gerald Everett, and Malcolm Brown are all gone now. Van Jefferson will no doubt be one of the early season weapons featured to make up that production.

Red-shirts unite

While the promise of contributors arrives in the form of each NFL Draft rookie class, the true production will come from the players who are returning from the 2020 campaign. Those red-shirted players had a year to be coached up, learn the plays, heal, get stronger, and prepare for a larger role this season.

Whether or not this is the ‘new format’ of NFL succession plans due to the risk of the coronavirus pandemic, or simply one year’s temporary answers, this plan has afforded the LA Rams organization a year to audition, coach, and work with prospects who may otherwise have gone unnoticed.

There will be positions some view as vital that may not be addressed in this draft. But that does not mean that the Rams simply have no answer for the position. In the team’s master plan, they may simply believe that the team’s overall talent pool is raised more by adding players elsewhere on the team. All the while, these five players are prepared to step up.