Rams Roster Ranked 2nd by PFF
PostPosted:4 years 9 months ago
https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/ ... -nfl-teams
The 2019 NFL offseason saw many personnel changes for all 32 teams, and each roster looks a bit different than it did a year ago.
We dove into the Pro Football Focus database and ranked every roster as it stands right now, focusing on the expected starters. PFF grades every player on every play of every game of the NFL season, allowing us a comprehensive look at what each player has to offer for the upcoming season. Projected starting lineups on offense and defense are provided, including our player grades from the 2018 season.
...
2. Los Angeles Rams
Biggest strength: Aaron Donald finished each of the past four seasons as the league's highest-graded interior defender. And last year was Donald's best season yet, as he earned a monstrous overall grade of 95.0 and recorded a mind-boggling 113 total pressures to lead interior defensive linemen by a handsome margin in both categories. He is a one-man wrecking crew, which will continue in 2019.
Biggest weakness: It's tough to find a weakness on the Rams' loaded defense, but collective run defense is probably it. Sure, they have Donald, but it wouldn't hurt to get better against the run at other positions. Consider that the Patriots gained 154 rushing yards in the Super Bowl, and forced seven missed tackles. Aside from Donald, only one other Rams front-seven member earned a run-defense grade above 80.0 last season. That was Ndamukong Suh, who has left town.
X factor for 2019: Jared Goff is coming off a great season in which he earned an overall grade of 84.3, ranking eighth among quarterbacks, but struggled mightily in the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. The Rams have an excellent coaching staff, a loaded roster and Super Bowl experience, but they will get only as far as Goff allows them to. The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and if Goff can continue to improve, the Rams might get back to the big game. Goff's clean-pocket passing ability ranked third in overall grade in 2018 and is an extremely strong and stable metric for looking at year-to-year production.
2019 Rams
OFFENSE DEFENSE
QB Jared Goff
(85.5)
DE Michael Brockers
(67.2)
RB Todd Gurley II
(78.6)
DT Greg Gaines
(91.8**)
RB Darrell Henderson
(88.1**)
DT/DE Aaron Donald
(95.0)
TE Gerald Everett
(82.5)
DE/OLB Dante Fowler Jr
(66.6)
WR Robert Woods
(88)
OLB/ILB Clay Matthews
(65.3)
WR Cooper Kupp
(77.4)
ILB Micah Kiser
(73.3***)
WR Brandin Cooks
(79.7)
OLB Cory Littleton
(66.6)
LT Andrew Whitworth
(83.1)
CB Aqib Talib
(76.6)
LG Bobby Evans
(72.3**)
CB Nickell Robey-Coleman
(82.6)
C Brian Allen
(67.5)
CB Marcus Peters
(60.1)
RG Austin Blythe
(71.8)
FS Eric Weddle
(77.9)
RT Rob Havenstein
(84.3)
SS John Johnson III
(84.3)
The 2019 NFL offseason saw many personnel changes for all 32 teams, and each roster looks a bit different than it did a year ago.
We dove into the Pro Football Focus database and ranked every roster as it stands right now, focusing on the expected starters. PFF grades every player on every play of every game of the NFL season, allowing us a comprehensive look at what each player has to offer for the upcoming season. Projected starting lineups on offense and defense are provided, including our player grades from the 2018 season.
...
2. Los Angeles Rams
Biggest strength: Aaron Donald finished each of the past four seasons as the league's highest-graded interior defender. And last year was Donald's best season yet, as he earned a monstrous overall grade of 95.0 and recorded a mind-boggling 113 total pressures to lead interior defensive linemen by a handsome margin in both categories. He is a one-man wrecking crew, which will continue in 2019.
Biggest weakness: It's tough to find a weakness on the Rams' loaded defense, but collective run defense is probably it. Sure, they have Donald, but it wouldn't hurt to get better against the run at other positions. Consider that the Patriots gained 154 rushing yards in the Super Bowl, and forced seven missed tackles. Aside from Donald, only one other Rams front-seven member earned a run-defense grade above 80.0 last season. That was Ndamukong Suh, who has left town.
X factor for 2019: Jared Goff is coming off a great season in which he earned an overall grade of 84.3, ranking eighth among quarterbacks, but struggled mightily in the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots. The Rams have an excellent coaching staff, a loaded roster and Super Bowl experience, but they will get only as far as Goff allows them to. The NFL is a quarterback-driven league, and if Goff can continue to improve, the Rams might get back to the big game. Goff's clean-pocket passing ability ranked third in overall grade in 2018 and is an extremely strong and stable metric for looking at year-to-year production.
2019 Rams
OFFENSE DEFENSE
QB Jared Goff
(85.5)
DE Michael Brockers
(67.2)
RB Todd Gurley II
(78.6)
DT Greg Gaines
(91.8**)
RB Darrell Henderson
(88.1**)
DT/DE Aaron Donald
(95.0)
TE Gerald Everett
(82.5)
DE/OLB Dante Fowler Jr
(66.6)
WR Robert Woods
(88)
OLB/ILB Clay Matthews
(65.3)
WR Cooper Kupp
(77.4)
ILB Micah Kiser
(73.3***)
WR Brandin Cooks
(79.7)
OLB Cory Littleton
(66.6)
LT Andrew Whitworth
(83.1)
CB Aqib Talib
(76.6)
LG Bobby Evans
(72.3**)
CB Nickell Robey-Coleman
(82.6)
C Brian Allen
(67.5)
CB Marcus Peters
(60.1)
RG Austin Blythe
(71.8)
FS Eric Weddle
(77.9)
RT Rob Havenstein
(84.3)
SS John Johnson III
(84.3)