Why LA Rams latest FA signing is very positive news

While the LA Rams roster continues to hold open slots, the Rams front office is making decisive and deliberate steps to fill the remaining vacancies with proven NFL veteran players. Even as the team is inundated with youthful energy, we have to be honest with ourselves. There is a comfortable level of rookies on any NFL roster, a limit to that number, a breaking point where the number of rookies is really more than the coaching staff can handle, and then where the LA Rams find themselves.

Coaching is more than verbal dictation, and it is far far more than Xs and Os drawn on a whiteboard. To optimize coaching, an NFL team needs an ample supply of headsy veterans who can break down coachspeak for all of the newbies. Unfortunately, the LA Rams do not have that ample supply of veterans, particularly when you take a look at the secondary.

Of the 19 players (Tre Tomlinson included, although not yet signed), nine are true rookies, while another seven players are entering their second or fewer NFL season. It's impossible to stick to any normal training schedule with so many blank faces among the players, and no matter how effective or patient the Rams coaching staff may be, that is bound to create problems

Rams free agency locks in veteran DB

And so, it was only a matter of time until the LA Rams free agency search found and signed a veteran defensive back. And the player added to the Rams roster is veteran defensive back, Ahkello Witherspoon. So what do we know about him?

Free agent CB Ahkello Witherspoon is signing with the #Rams, per source.

At 6-2, 208 pounds, Witherspoon’s a big corner who’s been very productive. In 13 games with the #Steelers over the past two seasons, he’s amassed 11 PBUs and 4 INTs. pic.twitter.com/26OSi596fh
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) June 29, 2023

For starters (pun intended), Ahkello Witherspoon is a 6-foot-2 195-pound defensive back whose career held chapters with both the San Francisco 49ers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has seen action in 60 games over his six-year NFL career and started 40 of those games. Until 2022, he was very effective in coverage, allowing no better than 59.4 percent of passes targeting his receiver to find their mark. However, he regressed last season, playing in just four games but allowing a 75.9 completion rate.

Witherspoon is not a tackling machine, but he can create turnovers. In fact, he generated three interceptions on just 368 defensive snaps for the Pittsburgh Steeler in 2021. Unfortunately, he missed 28.6 percent of his tackles that year. (Yikes!) So why is this positive news?