3 LA Rams players from 2020 roster who are already on the bubble

ILB Young

From the moment that the LA Rams acquired the promising inside linebacker Kenny Young from the Baltimore Ravens in their exchange for Marcus Peters, he seemed to be someone the Rams could quickly transform into a solid starter for the team’s defense.  So far, that hope has yet to be realized.

Now, Kenny Young did not get the best of hands dealt to him any more than the hand dealt to offensive linemen Austin Corbett or Coleman Shelton. Let me explain. He arrived via the trad mid-season in 2019. Due to his unfamiliarity with the Rams defensive scheme, he was relegated to a special teams’ role only in that season.

The following season, in 2020, the NFL faced the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and responding by limiting NFL teams’ offseason programs to eliminate all preseason games and afford teams a severely compressed amount of time to work with players to prepare them for the 2020 NFL season. That meant that despite playing for the Rams for two seasons, he has yet to experience anything close to a normal training camp. Not only did that limit his ability to learn the Rams defensive playbook on the field, but limited his ability to demonstrate his understanding to the coaching staff.

While he may get that chance in 2021, he is on the last season of his current contract. And while the LA Rams are interested in fielding their best 11 players on defense, Young’s 41.6 grade from Pro Football Focus is not promising. The Rams have since drafted South Carolina Gamecock inside linebacker Ernest Jones to compete for the starting inside linebacker role and will welcome back veteran inside linebacker Travin Howard after he was injured all of 2020. The team also discovered a better-than-expected season out of inside linebacker Troy Reeder, who finished the year with an impressive PFF grade of 60.4.

The Rams will likely carry no more than four inside linebackers, and I expect the team to have Jones, Howard, and Reeder as the top three. That will place Young in competition with Micah Kiser, Derrick Moncrief, and Christian Rozeboom for the final inside linebacker spot. With Kiser and Young’s contracts expiring at the end of the season, I would not be surprised if the Rams opt to go in another direction.