Could LA Rams Edge Chris Garrett be their X-factor on defense?

The last man drafted by the LA Rams this year could maybe just possibly conceivably be the ultimate steal of their 2021 draft. The Rams’ brain trust saw something special in the young man they drafted in the seventh round. Something we will dub the X-factor. And as with the case of seventh-round rookies, there is often a unique quality to prompt a team to make that selection.

And they are about to unleash the little-known and overlooked Concordia-St. Paul Edge rusher Chris Garrett on opposing quarterbacks this upcoming season. And he will terrorize any who he happens to face because he can flat out get to the quarterback with the quickness of a freight train speeding downhill with no brakes.

If your division is the NFC West, you need to be able to corral the mobile, dual-threat quarterbacks that prowl the landscape of this division – Seattle Seahawks’ quarterback Russell Wilson, Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback Kyle Murray, and maybe even that new kid with the San Francisco 49ers in rookie quarterback Trey Lance. You’d best be able to bring the heat off the edge, and that’s precisely why the Rams drafted Garrett because that’s what he does.

QB carnivore

He gets off the line like a bullet, speeds through (or around) linemen, and swallows up quarterbacks whole. Like an alligator, Garrett is what you call “hyper-carnivorous” of QB’s. One second they’re standing in the pocket and looking downfield and then, suddenly, Gulp! Down goes Frazier!

There will be no opposing quarterbacks working through their third progression of possible targets when Garrett’s on the field because they will have no time. Garrett goes hunting and it’s open season on their hides. Boom!

Here’s a YouTube highlights video of his play, so you can make up your mind: Chris Garrett hunts QBS

Yes, he played for a small Division II school that most Rams fans have likely never heard of before. The Rams have never let the fact that a player didn’t attend a power-five football conference dissuade them from drafting someone. That might matter on a resume for the business world, but in the NFL, talent is talent, whether it’s found at a football factory like Alabama or a liberal arts university in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Big fish small pond?

Did he play against inferior lesser talent? No doubt. His game-day tape makes him look like a man playing amongst boys. Is he a raw NFL prospect? Yes, but that rawness also shows dominance on the football field.

The 6-foot-4, 241-pound Garrett had 14 sacks and 20.5 tackles for a loss as an AP All-American in 2019, tying him for the D-II lead in sacks. In 11 games, he also had seven forced fumbles, most often as a quarterback crumpled to the ground in his grasp. In 2018, Garrett had 16.5 sacks. If you’re wondering why we have to cite prior-year statistics, Concordia-St. Paul did not play a football season in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns, so his last season in college was, well, an outstanding one. A highlight reel of sacks, strips, and violence unimpeded on a straight-line path to the quarterback.

Undoubtedly, the lack of a 2020 season and his small-school pedigree affected his draft selection. But something caught the Rams’ scouts’ eyes, and that was certainly his speed rushes and overall elusiveness he uses to evade blockers. And they must have salivated at the prospects of lining him on the opposite side of their other sack specialist, Leonard Floyd.

As a “situational rusher” who might enter the game in various substitution packages on obvious passing downs, that’s exactly the X-factor the Rams saw in Garrett. A speedy chess piece, indeed, for the Rams’ new defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to wield. And perhaps in the shadow of All-Pro Aaron Donald? A quicker quarterback sacker than the Rams’ defense has ever had before.