It's already now or never for these five seldom seen vets on the Rams roster

Balancing an NFL roster between timing of contracts, evening the scales between youth and veterans, and ensuring that no positional groups feasts too frequently on the finances of the team is quite a task. It is an annual tightrope trek deserving of The Great Wallenda across the highwire. And yet, it is a task that LA Rams GM Les Snead willing takes each year.

Now, don't fee sorry for Snead just yet. He is armed with an array of tools that rivals that of the Batcave. He has a small army of scouts, NFL analysts, and draft analysts, all of whom continue to survey and search for the next best fit for the Rams roster. Based on how quickly the team rebounded from a 5-12 season in 2022 to a sixth-seeded playoff berth last season, they are clearly on the right track.

Of course, not every player addition works out. Whether its an extended learning curve for a player who was expected to contribute quickly, or simply a projected role on the team that failed to develop, the team is content with a 50 percent success rate in any rookie draft class.

Blue's clues as to what the Rams are thinking

While the true grading system of any NFL rookie class wisely holds off until the series of rookie contracts have expired, there are detectable clues that every team gives in the interim that lends some level of proof that rookies chances of getting signed to an extension are waning rapidly.

So how can we tell how a player who is essentially a bench or limited role player is losing the confidence of his coaches? Well, it starts with how he is used in the season. When opportunities occur, is he tapped to step up? Or does the team go to great lengths to avoid placing that player into a larger role? Did he show signs of a larger role throughout the season? Or did he seem to stay put, or even regress a bit? DId he make the 53-man Rams roster, or was he waived and signed to the team's practice squad?

Perhaps the most telling sign of them all is how the team handled that specific positional group. Did the team sign free agency veterans and or draft rookies to raise the bar of competition in this year's training camp? Or did the team seem to let it ride in terms of the depth of that positional group?

Let's take a quick look over three returning young veterans whose spot on the team may very well be in jeopardy. While each player is just one solid training camp from reversing their stumbling stock, they are already in peril of being on the Rams roster bubble. Some may surprise you.