Rams sign 10, then add 4 more, to Reserve/Future contracts. So who and what are they?

There is no rest for the weary. That is certainly the case for the LA Rams and their season ending housekeeping functions. First and foremost, the Rams front office must address securing those players from their 16 player practice squad for the 2024 NFL season. The team has announced that they have signed 10 players to Reserve/Future contracts. The announcement was released on Monday, January 15, 2024.

The LA Rams 2023 season has now ended. With the Rams early exit from the 2024 NFL Playoffs, the team must pivot from what was towards what will be. The team's execution of retaining key developmental prospects to remain through 2024 OTAs and training camp is the first of many steps that the LA Rams front office must take in restocking the Rams roster.

So who did the LA Rams sign to return in 2024? The LA Rams signed 10 of the 16 players who ended the 2023 season on the team's practice squad to Reserve/Future deals. They are:

But before the ink was dry on the first wave of future reserve contract, the LA Rams front office got busy again, this time adding four more players:

The net result of the two announcements means that the LA Rams did not secure the following practice squad players for the 2024 NFL season.

1. DT Marquise Copeland - 6-foot-2, 287 pounds, 3 year veteran
2. DE Earnest Brown IV - 6-foot-5, 270 pounds, 1 year veteran

So what does this tell us about the LA Rams roster's current status, and is there any way to interpret what the LA Rams plans may be for the 2024 offseason based on the positional groups that have been addressed so quickly?

The two players who will not be back are defensive linemen, both of whom were developmental projects for former LA Rams DL Coach Eric Henderson, who has taken on similar role with USC, plus co-Defensive Coordinator. The LA Rams front office appears to be content to await a new DL coach to round out the Rams roster for that position group. But is that too much to discuss in this article?

Perhaps it's best to revisit exactly what a Reserve/Future contract is in the NFL, and how teams use this contractual relationship to reconstruct a roster for the next NFL season.