LA Rams find Guy Fieri's flavortown at safety in 2024 NFL FA market

When the LA Rams projected free agents for the 2024 NFL Free Agency market, I was very concerned that the team was slated to lose two solid defensive backs due to expiring contracts. I am referring to veteran safeties John Johnson III and Jordan Fuller, who are both unrestricted free agents as the start of the new NFL season.

In any other season, the exodus of two starting Rams safeties would be enough to sound the alarm. But time has a way of smoothing out the emotional spikes. And this is not the first time that the Rams faced losing two starting safeties. In 2022, the Rams lost both starting safeties Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott to free agency, and it seemed as though the team got better production out of the safety position in 2023 from the efforts of Johnson, Fuller, and Russ Yeast and Quentin Lake.

Curiously, both Yeast and Lake were drafted in 2022, a year when the Rams first pick was no earlier than the 104th overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, a pick used to select oft-injured IOL Logan Bruss. But let's just pause a moment to review some key selections made from that draft:

• 142nd pick (Round 4) - DB Cobie Durant
• 164th pick (Round 5) - RB Kyren Williams
• 211th pick (Round 6) - DB Quentin Lake
• 212th pick (Round 6) - DB Derion Kendrick
• 253rd pick (Round 7) - DB Russ Yeast

At the time, it seemed that necessity was the mother of invention. The Rams needed to invest in the team's secondary, and the front office carpet-bombed the draft hoping to find some prospects who could contribute to the secondary. So far, that strategy has panned out to varying degrees. But the team is now pivoting to a new NFL season. New seasons mean that the front office must reform a new Rams roster.

And that is where this story begins.