LA Rams: Travin Howard leads stiffer ILB competition in 2021

Full training camp with preseason games

In 2020, the  NFL and NFLPA faced the risk of no season whatsoever. That would have been catastrophic for the NFL industry, and waylaid NFL contracts to the point where an entirely new agreement would have been necessary to pay players over the gap between seasons. Of course, none of that happened because the 2020 season did happen.

Los Angeles Rams

What did not happen was preseason games. That eliminated the chance for NFL coaches to reorder their depth chart. In short, they were forced to use 2019 films, 2020 notes from limited training camp sessions, and commit to starting players from that and that alone. For the LA Rams, a team that commits to a huge influx of young players each season, that was a huge hurdle to get over.

This year, that hurdle is no longer there. Whatever the presumed depth chart may take the form of, the LA Rams can reset it multiple times before the season begins. This year, it will be less about the previous season’s highlights and more about this year’s performance on the field. That will make a huge difference to the competition for starting and rotational roles.

This season’s complement of candidates is a bit more robust in many ways. The team has much more experience to draw upon, a valuable draft pick selection to bolster the group and two players who practiced with the team throughout all of 2020, and who are looking to earn a spot on the team’s roster. That is all better than last year’s starting point, when the team was trying to assemble a rotation from players who had little experience with the LA Rams or worse yet, with the NFL.