LA Rams secondary truly was second to none in 2020

A year ago, the LA Rams defensive backfield was in a bit of disarray. Veteran safety Eric Weddle retired, the LA Rams lost slot cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman to free agency, and the team was banking on the chemistry of a secondary that truly had not played together. In 2019, the LA Rams safety John Johnson III had missed much of the season due to injury.

The LA Rams had completely overhauled the cornerbacks by midseason, trading away both injured CB Tariq Aqib and a non-suitable-for-Rams-defense cornerback Marcus Peters and then trading for All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey. But by the end of the season, the Rams secondary had evolved from Aqib Talib, Marcus Peters, Eric Weddle, and John Johnson III to Troy Hill, Darious Willams, Eric Weddle, and Taylor Rapp.

The Rams had not played Jalen Ramey and John Johnson III on the field at the same time at any point in time in 2019. And yet, we weighed in with a big ole bold prediction that the LA Rams secondary would be second to none in 2020.  And at that time, we were the only website with enough confidence in the Rams secondary to make that claim. At that time, we anticipated the promotion of Taylor Rapp as the other starting safety and believed that David Long would claim a large rotational role as the slot cornerback.

LA Rams defensive secondary delivers

Well, the Rams did indeed claim the Top-Ranked secondary in the NFL in 2020, per Pro Football Focus. While their write-up did cite Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams, Troy Hill, and John Johnson III, the article missed the contribution of rookie safeties Jordan Fuller and Terrell Burgess, both of whom played significant roles in the overall effectiveness of the secondary.

Safety coach Ejiro Evero did an incredible job with almost no time to work with rookies last year. Both drafted safeties Fuller and Burgess were ready to go last year. Of course, Fuller was the starter next to Johnson, but before injury forced him to IR, Burgess put up an excellent game against the Chicago Bears.

It was no easy task to synch up the Rams defensive backs in such a short amount of time prior to the 2020 NFL season. But it was clear that as the season advanced, the secondary became more and more capable of creating turnovers, and stopping some of the best passing offenses in the NFL. Why does that matter this year?

Well now, the LA Rams face a remarkably similar situation in 2021, but with the positions reversed. This year, the LA Rams are deep at the safety position but will be shopping the 2021 NFL Draft for help at cornerback. Will the Rams repeat as the top-rated secondary in 2021? Well, that’s a topic for a future article.