LA Rams: Camp Showdown II – Taylor Rapp vs. Terrell Burgess

Don’t take Terrell too lightly

Second-year player Terrell Burgess is a bit of a question mark when it comes to his durability and play-making ability. After all, he was added to the LA Rams defense in the 2020 NFL Draft, lost out a quick-and-dirty role to start in the defense to teammate Jordan Fuller, and was injured during the season just as he was beginning to flash tremendous potential.

Okay, so far there isn’t a lot to digest here. Well, let’s start off by mentioning the fact that Burgess was very effective when he took the field.  He only saw action in 49 defensive snaps but managed to get eight tackles. On pass plays, he allowed just four completions with seven targets. Not much size to the sampling, but he showed up with huge promise when he took the field

Burgess is a different sort of player than Taylor Rapp, in that he approaches the game with a bit of finesse. Now, admittedly it was a minute (very small) sample size, and he really only appeared to be in command of his role on the defense against the Chicago Bears, the game in which he broke his ankle. But he was a very effective replacement when he took the field in place of Jordan Fuller, which was quite surprising considering how little training camp he was able to benefit from before the 2020 season began.

He begins his segment at the 7:00 minute mark in the above video, and he was just beginning to get a chance to test out his ankle in May 2021. He is a native of southern California and is thrilled to be playing his NFL career in Los Angeles. He is a solid-sized player at 5-foot-11 and 202-pounds.

While he doesn’t boast the 6-foot-plus size that so many secondary coaches covet, his college career boasted playing at both the safety and cornerback role. That background is incredibly valuable to the LA Rams because the defensive scheme of both former defensive coordinator Brandon Staley and current defensive coordinator Raheem Morris relies upon the versatility of coverages.  Burgess has a huge upside in the Rams 2021 secondary to pivot from man-press coverage to a cover-three scheme instantly.

While Rapp boasts stronger NFL experience, Burgess boasts a much better fit for the LA Rams scheme. Burgess will benefit from a fully-agenda’d offseason training program. That allows Burgess to showcase what he can do on talent, but also to demonstrate how compatible he plays alongside his teammates and how well he can play in Morris’ defense.

Burgess is not someone to be taken lightly. He possesses incredible football IQ, can hold his own on the NFL football field and learned a lot in his rookie season. Now, he has the opportunity to use all that he learned last year to earn a starting role this year.  I would not be the least bit surprised if he does exactly that.