3 LA Rams players who earned their horns against Chargers

Standout OLB performance

Justin Lawler may not be someone whose name is instantly recognized by the LA Rams fans, even if you have been following the team for many years.  This one may bring you to tears folks, so grab a box of facial tissues. Yes, we can wait. This story is worth it. This is one for the storybooks folks.

Los Angeles Rams

The LA Rams may be as much on the business end of the NFL as any team, but there are those moments of human compassion that make me grateful that a team like the LA Rams still gets it.  Well, now I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.

The LA Rams drafted outside linebacker Justin Lawler with the 244th pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. In his rookie season, Lawler was a special teams player coverage player and used that ability to get down the field and wrap up a tackle to get some playing time on defense. It was the same tried and tested career track that allowed the Rams to fill roster spots from day three prospects. But Justin Lawler injured his foot in 2019 and in 2020, forcing him to sit out two successive seasons.

In the post-game video footage, Justin Lawler described his three different foot injuries and the fact that the LA Rams and particularly the Rams GM Les Snead brought him back for a third attempt to crack the roster. He got choked up when he mentioned his wife, Denver Lawler, who has been so completely supportive as he continues to pursue his passion to play football.

This was a good video, particularly if you want to get to the challenge of exactly what it takes to get to a point of making it to the roster. Don’t miss this one. Justin Lawler is an open book at the podium, sharing the meticulous and painstaking effort that has been required for the past two years to get him onto the football field.

Ah yes, the football field. In the end, Lawler was given five tackles, one tackle for a loss, and two quarterback hits. But if you didn’t see the game, and how completely Justin Lawler showed up all over the field, made huge plays when the defense needed him to, you would have missed just how impactful he was in this one.

The LA Rams need some talent at outside linebacker. Leonard Floyd is the veteran leader. Justin Hollins is the default second OLB due to his consistency if nothing else. I suspect that Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and or Terrell Lewis is in the mix somewhere. But I would leapfrog Justin Lawler over Lewis at this point, and inch him closer to Obo after this one.