DB Kamren Kinchens could end up being the ideal keystone for Rams secondary

The LA Rams had to be pleased with the performance of their bargain basement secondary in the 2023 NFL season. By all accounts, the team spent next to nothing to staff their defensive backs on the roster, and still ended up with a pass defense that was respectable, if not exemplary, by the end of the year. But not even that overachievement was enough to prompt the team to extend players for another season.

Instead, the team's front office is taking a rather unusual and novice approach for a playoff team. The team has completely retooled the secondary by signing a new group of veterans who are presumed to be plug-and-play starters in this secondary for 2024. All but one position, that is. The Rams allowed one safety staring role to be unaddressed from the 2024 NFL Free Agency market. But that role may have been addressed as well, as soon as the team drafted former Miami rookie defensive back Kamren Kinchens.

Kinchens was the only defensive back chosen by the team in the 2024 NFL Draft, a draft that was bursting with talent for secondary-needy teams. But after the dust has now settled, he may prove to be the only defensive back needed by this team for 2024.

For all of the pieces that must fall the right way for this defense to make noise in 2024, the role of a ball-hawking safety may turn out to be the most important role for the team. We can tout run-stuffers on the defensive front line, or pass rushers scaring the daylights out of opposing quarterbacks by collapsing the pocket off the edge, but does any position steal the souls from the offense faster than a defensive back who can create turnovers? In 2024, that was one area that the defense seemed to struggle at all season.