Rams may be desperate enough to reunite with a player despite the huge price tag

The Los Angeles Rams are certainly content to run it back this year. At least, that is the feeling you get after the team seemed to be limited in free agency and the 2025 NFL Draft. Some changes to the Rams roster happened, but not as many as you may have expected. And there are some opportunities for rookies to earn a spot and role with the team, but not nearly as many as in years past.

But there is that closing window for veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The Rams lobbied hard to keep him around, and it was not simply to start games and sell tickets. This team is very close to winning another Super Bowl. But did the team do enough to do so this offseason? Until the first snap of Game 1 of any NFL season, Rams fans can ask that question.

It's not easy to reform a contender. The Rams have missed the NFL Playoffs just twice in the eight seasons under Head Coach Sean McVay's tenure. But of those eight seasons, the Rams have appeared just twice in Super Bowl competition. And the Rams have only laid claim to the Lombardi Trophy just once in the past eight seasons.

In 2021, it was not just the original roster that propelled the Rams to a Super Bowl LVI victory. The team rolled the dice on some veterans with reputations for stepping up big. The Rams traded for Denver Broncos icon, OLB Von Miller. The team signed outcast wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.. And as the team prepared to enter the playoffs, DC Raheem Morris lured former Rams safety Eric Weddle out of a two-year retirement to return and play for the secondary.

And it all worked, somehow.

No amount of data generated decides who is needed to win a Super Bowl for you. It's as much art as science. It's that magical blend of knowledge, trust, and gut instincts that makes successful general managers who they are. And it's also the acceptance that chances must be taken, even knowing that many of the bets will not pay out.

Which all leads me to pose the huge decision point for the Rams in 2025...

Are the Rams desperate enough to reunite with this DB despite a huge price tag?

The Miami Dolphins have let the other 31 NFL teams that veteran cornerback Jalen Ramsey can be had, for a price. For the Dolphins, it's a flat out salary dump. After agreeing to extend Ramsey to a significant level of compensation, the team is already regretting that lucrative contract. And they are more than happy to let another team take over paying his salary.

Will the Rams conclude that the price is right?

While many fans will rush to base that decision on the dollars and cents aspect of taking on the huge contract for Jalen Ramsey, it may not be that simple. After all, what is it worth to any NFL team to win a Super Bowl? The team plummeted to 5-12 after winning Super Bowl LVI, and had to purge the Rams roster of all highly-paid veterans in the 2023 offseason. But if you ask any fan, player, coach, or personnel executive, they will all tell you the same thing.

It was worth it.

So, when is Jalen Ramsey's contract and cost of acquiring him not worth it? If and when the team falls short of winning Super Bowl LX. But to know that, the Rams have to roll the dice now and trade for Ramsey. But are the Rams that desperate that they need a Hail Mary blockbuster trade to put them into the Super Bowl conversation? They are already there.

We cannot homogenize the Rams' 2024 season and say that this team was no better than 2023, because the records were the same. The difference between how the defense started out in 2024 to the way the team finished up in 2024 was night and day. We explored the challenges that led to the Rams' slow start in 2024. Even the most skeptical NFL analysts do not see those same factors in 2025 for the team.

The Rams allowed 228 passing yards in two playoff games, just one touchdown, picked off a pass, and generated a jaw-dropping 16 quarterback sacks. The Rams' run defense was shredded by Philadelphia Eagles RB Saquon Barkley. But there was nothing wrong with the way the Rams played pass defense.

So why worry about Jalen Ramsey at all?

While he hasn't shown up as the same player for the Dolphins defense, Jalen Ramsey was a vital component to the Rams defense, both in pass coverage and in run defense. He stands 6-foot-1, weighs 208 pounds, and has the physicality of a linebacker. Ramsey does not shy away from taking on blockers, setting an edge, turning plays in, and tackling both runners and receivers.

He was so talented in the Rams' secondary that the safeties would ignore his receiver and focus on other receivers running routes. That proved to be a huge advantage for the Rams, because Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott were not gifted in pass coverage. But they were physical safeties who loved to punish receivers with hard tackles after the catch.

Has Ramsey lost a step? Perhaps. But this is not a Rams secondary that needs Jalen Ramsey to neutralize the opposing team's top wide receiver all by himself. The Rams' secondary has made solid progress at adding safeties who can defend the pass.

Adding Ramsey is not the kind of move that some see it as. Ramsey is no longer a shut-down cornerback. But he is big, physical, and adding him allows the team to play with a number of secondary iterations that are solid, smothering, and offer enough rotation and depth to ensure quality pass defense all season long.

Are the Rams desperate enough to reunite with Jalen Ramsey despite a huge contract? No, not desperate enough. But it is a wise move to add quality talent to a roster that is already quite close to a Super Bowl push this season. The Rams did not hesitate to do so in 2021, and we all know how that season turned out.

Regrets? The worst regret is not pulling the trigger on a roster move that could put the team over the hump. Is trading for veteran defensive back Jalen Ramsey such a move? The only way to know the answer to that one is to make the trade. If not, the question will simply linger, unanswered, for a very long time.

As always, thanks for reading.

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