Intriguing position battles for LA Rams in 2024 will shock some fans

III: Defensive end dilemma

While the upcoming battle between undrafted rookie DE Anthony Goodlow versus veteran DE Desjuan Johnson may not be the first training camp battle that comes to mind, that does not lessen the temperature of this heated competition. Now, don't get me wrong, Johnson seemed to appear out of nowhere in 2023, appearing in 11 games, and recording nine tackles, two tackles for a loss, and 2.0 quarterback sacks in his rookie season.

Desjuan Johnson stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 252 pounds. He was the under-the-radar Mr. Irrelevant for the Rams in the 2023 NFL Draft who was hand-picked by Rams former DL Coach Eric Henderson. He was very productive, as his performance happened on just 102 defensive snaps.

But the Rams lost starting defensive end Jonah Williams to free agency, creating a void of 600 defensive snaps that must be filled this season. While the obvious answer is to slide the lion's share of snaps to Johnson, I believe that Anthony Goodlow will stake a claim to some of those snaps.

Goodlow is officially listed on the Rams website as standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 283 pounds.

He was productive in college, putting up 42 tackles, 7.0 tackles for a loss, and 3.0 quarterback sacks in his final season. He is versatile enough to line up to multiple positions and is ideally suited for a no-nonsense DL Coach like Giff Smith.

Desjuan Johnson will get many more defensive snaps in 2024. But look for the undrafted defensive end name Anthony Goodlaw to earn a rotational role in 2024 as well.