3 LA Rams we can safely call busts after the 2024 NFL season

As the LA Rams pack up the 2024 season, gleaning over actions taken to decipher what worked and didn't work, the team must confront the annual decision tree of who should be extended and who should be shown the door. It's nothing new, and by now GM Les Snead has tweaked the team's front office into a well-oiled machine that can and will handle the workload with no hiccups.

But to the fans, the sweet purring of the Rams front office may not be as reassuring as hoped for. After all, until the team has filled the 90-man Rams roster for the 2025 NFL season, there will be a certain level of uncertainty in regard to what the team has planned for the upcoming year. And as we have seen in the past, the team has never been above reaching out and signing former veterans to help out as younger players try to get acclimated to life in the NFL and as players for the Rams.

But like soda that has been left in a glass too long, or bread that has not been kept in a sealed air-tight bag, some players who have been around grow stale. Either they never realize their expected potential, their compensation exceeds their contribution, or both. In any case, the time comes for the team and the player to toss a white flag and part ways. Who falls into that 'bust,' category for the LA Rams after the 2024 NFL season? We have three players who seem to fit the bill:

(3) - Joe Noteboom

Once considered the heir apparent to veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth, veteran offensive tackle Joe Noteboom played well enough to lure a huge payday out of the Rams. Then after the ink was still wet, he proved once again that early signs of lack of durability were not a fluke. The team intended to promote Noteboom to a starting left tackle in 2022, and contracted compensation to reflect his promotion into that prestigious role.

Joe Noteboom faded into a more appropriate swing tackle role for the Rams in 2022, a role he maintained through 2024. In 2022, he started six games. In 2023, he started eight games. And in 2024, he started just four games. His call to action typically came at the injury to a teammate. But in 2024, that pattern developed a hiccup as Noteboom was injured as he filled in for suspended teammate Alaric Jackson in Week 1. But an injury to Noteboom forced the team to promote A.J. Arcuri into a starting role for Week 2.

The Rams cannot pay millions to a swing tackle who runs the risk of injury with every appearance. I have no doubt that in the right system, Noteboom could be a serviceable starting offensive lineman. But his lack of durability with the Rams has created more challenges than solutions.