The LA Rams training camp kicks off in less than one month

II: The Rams’ defense will experiment with new ways to pressure the quarterback

With fewer seasoned veterans at outside linebacker, you can expect defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to install blitz packages to spice things up a bit for the opposing quarterbacks. That will all happen throughout training camp, and I expect that the outcome will be superb.

Raheem Morris is a savvy veteran defensive coordinator, and much of 2021 was submerged in his efforts to understand and experiment with the capabilities of the individual players as well as entire units in the defense. By the second half of the season, the last 10 of 21 games to be exact, the team lost just one game. Raheem Morris had found the range of this defense.

Method to the Morris madness

Signing All-Pro ILB Bobby Wagner was not just some LA Rams spending spree. The coaches sat down and had to determine viable use of him in the Rams’ defense, fully understanding that signing Wagner may have taken other signings off the table.

It’s easy to be mesmerized at the pairing of a seasoned veteran like Wagner playing alongside a young and rising defensive star, like Ernest Jones, and be oblivious as to the benefits to the overall defensive performance. The Rams finally have a pair of players who hit like a ton of bricks and move like cats in the midst of their defense. That is something to get very excited about.

But Wagner is far more than just an enforcer in the middle. With him on the field, the Rams can send him after the quarterback or his teammate, Ernest Jones, on A-Gap blitzes. Or the call could be to send Jones to the flat and send both outside linebackers. The alternatives are endless. And that is what the Rams will sort out in training camp.