3 former Rams who won’t live up to their new contracts

Just needs one more year

Players who were coached by former Rams DL Coach Eric Henderson possess two unique traits. The first trait is that they give 100 percent on every drill, every play, in every game. The second is that regardless of when they were added to the roster, they have a better than average chance of succeeding in the NFL.

Former Rams defensive end Jonah Williams never heard his name called out in the 2020 NFL Draft, but he just signed a contract to play for a new NFL team, the Minnesota Vikings. That will give Jonah Williams his fifth NFL season. By many standards, he is already a success.

But NFL players do not just want to be on a roster. They want to contribute, to get onto the football field, make tackles, and bring down opposing quarterbacks. After all, that is what they are ultimately paid to do. And Williams, like every NFL player, just wants to earn his keep. But the thing is, I don't know that he is quite 'there' just yet.

When the team lost former DE Morgan Fox to free agency, he has already had a season that proved that everything that he had learned to that point made sense, that the game had slowed down for him, and that he had developed the ability to get after the quarterback. Yet when he signed with the Carolina Panthers, it was as though he regressed two years, and he struggled to get quarterback sacks once more.

DE Jonah Williams is following a very similar career track to the track of Morgan Fox. The problem is that Williams spent his first NFL season on the LA Rams practice squad. So his breakout year for the LA Rams will never happen. Instead, he will face competition for a role on the Minnesota Vikings defensive line, and I simply do not believe that he is ready just yet.

He may make their roster, as they need pass rushers. But I believe that this was a step that puts him at risk, at least for the 2024 NFL season. I have no doubt that he can prove to be every bit as productive as Morgan Fox now is for the Los Angeles Chargers. I simply believe that he will need an additional year to get there.