It's not even training camp, but 6 Rams rookies are ready to flip the switch

RB Jarquez Hunter - #35

It was hard to accept the fact that the Rams were comfortable carrying four running backs on the roster last season, despite giving over 80 percent of the workload to RB Kyren Williams. The team simply had better uses for at least one of those claimed roster spots. Hopefully, the addition of rookie RB Jarquez Hunter will give the Rams confidence in carrying fewer players at the position this year.

Let's start the ball rolling by admitting that I love the addition of RB Jarquez Hunter. Unlike my lukewarm reaction to RB Blake Corum in 2024, who I saw simply as a backup to Kyren Williams with little new to offer the offense, the speedier and more ferocious Jarquez Hunter is not simply the act of piling one more body into the Rams RB room phone booth, but the act of expanding the role with speed and power.

It could simply be a matter of ho-hum fatigue that has settled into the experience that was the Rams' effort at running the football last season, but Jarquez Hunter feels like that cold splash of water that shocks the system out of a hot summer day slumber. Despite his 5-foot-9 height and 204-pound weight, Hunter gives the Rams a unique combination of speed and power. He's a tough guy's tough guy, a player who runs without sleeves or gloves, who accelerates with explosive authority at the snap of the football, but who has the power to break tackles even between the tackles.

He doesn't just offer this offense a fresh set of legs. He gives the offense an option for faster and stronger legs.

Both HC Sean McVay and GM Les Snead agreed that Jarquez Hunter was their top rookie target on Day 3 of the 2025 NFL Draft. To ensure that he did not get selected before falling to the Rams, the team made it a point to trade up to select him. He was the guy that the team wanted all along.

If that is not enough to electrify the fans who get to see him in action at training camp, I don't know what will.

ILB Pooh Paul Jr. - #54

I can't see how any Rams fan can truly appreciate the magic that GM Les Snead cast in the 2025 NFL Draft without a deep dive into how the team emerged from the draft with one of the top-five inside linebackers late in Round 5. Was it dumb luck, incredible analytical skill, or simple magic that allowed a Day 2 inside linebacker to fall to the Rams in the middle of Day 3? No matter how you decide, one of the best linebackers in the draft fell to a team with one of the greatest needs for a linebacker.

'Pooh' Paul Jr. played three seasons for the Arkansas Razorbacks, then transferred to Ole Miss and was even more productive in his fourth and final season of NCAA football competition. He showcased the ability to do it all in that fourth year, putting up 88 tackles, 3.5 quarterback sacks, 11 tackles for a loss, four pass deflections, one interception, and one fumble recovery.

Paul is a fierce defender, the type of guy who plays larger than he measures. He loves to make football plays, and is feared as the guy who tackles hard without missing. If veteran inside linebacker Nate Landman is the anvil at 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, then Pooh Paul Jr. is the hammer, the faster and rangier linebacker who hits hard and covers a huge range from sideline to sideline.

I hope that the Rams resist the temptation to err by pairing Nate Landman with either Troy Reeder or Omar Speights. With Speights, the Rams defense overloads with two players trying to make the same plays in the same way. With Reeder, the Rams are simply throwing their hands up in the air and admitting that they can't figure it out.

Chris Pooh Paul Jr. needs experience to grow. And he is the type of player who can develop at least as far as Ernest Jones at a minimum if given the chance. This defense needs more than a run-stuffing linebacker to pair up in the middle of the defense. It needs a linebacker who can cover like a defensive back but thump like a defensive lineman.

That's why Pooh Paul Jr. is on his way to becoming a fan favorite already.