3 reasons why Omar Speights is perfect teammate for Christian Rozeboom

(3) - Speights plays like Ernest Jones

There is no magic involved by putting players in situations that amplify their opportunity to succeed. And that is the first and foremost reason why Christian Rozeboom is showing remarkable improvement as the year progresses. But that is not happening by accident or in a void. He learned to coordinate his play by teaming up with former Rams ILB Ernest Jones.

As it turns out, Omar Speights's physicality and style of play resemble the physical style of play that Ernest Jones brought to the defense. Speights is not there yet in terms of a mature and experienced defender. And for those fans who are not yet in the camp of Omar Speights providing a solid role in the Rams young defensive unit, I can understand that.

The thing is, the defense has been far more effective with Speights on the football field. The team has rolled to a record of 3-2 over his five starts, and the only game in which the defense allowed more than 23 points was that loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. If you exclude that game, the defense has held opponents to under 20 points per game when Speights has started. Even if you factor in that Eagles game, the Rams defense has averaged allowing opponents to score 23.2 points per game, which is a full 1.0 point less than their season average of 24.2.

Something is working better now.

Speights is not the tackling machine in this defense line Ernest Jones used to be. But that will come over time. His first double-digit tackles came in Week 13 against the New Orleans Saints. That is the first of many games in which Speights will impress with his tackling forte. Best of all, Speights bucks the trend of Rams defenders missing tackles. So far, he has missed just two tackles for a missed tackle rate of 5.0 percent. That happens to be the best of any inside linebacker who has had a meaningful number of defensive snaps this season.