The “fearsome” Rams defense with Wagner and without Miller?
Wagner and Miller don’t represent a pure swap in terms of position or skill set, but the Rams returned to add a veteran former champion who will provide defensive leadership.
During the Los Angeles Rams’ Super Bowl championship parade last February, All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald stood at the podium to echo head coach Sean McVay’s “bring it back” chant.
“We’ve built a super team,” Donald said at the parade. “We’re going to bring back the super team! Why not bring back the super team?”
And while the Rams made sure to keep their core of players under contract for the foreseeable future with a contract restructuring for Donald and extensions for quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp, the defense will look different than its Super Bowl LVI version.
Los Angeles had hoped to bring back outside linebacker Von Miller, but couldn’t compete with the six-year, $120 million offer it received from the Buffalo Bills. Instead of looking for another pass rush specialist, the Rams looked to add quality at another linebacker position, with future Hall of Famer Bobby Wagner.
While Wagner and Miller do not represent a pure swap in terms of position or skill set-Miller is a quarterback hunter with 115.5 catches, and Wagner is a knockdown machine who has averaged 138.3 per season over his 10-year career, including a personal best of 170 last season with the Seattle Seahawks-the Rams again added a veteran champion who will provide leadership to a team that lost several key players to retirement or free agency after that Super Bowl win.
Rookie Ernest Jones played an important role at middle linebacker for the Rams en route to the title, so it seemed odd to bring Wagner to Los Angeles. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said Wagner, who should be starting alongside Jones, who remains “one of those guys who can play at every opportunity.” Morris said the Rams are working on what the addition of Wagner means for the defense, but that “all those things will work themselves out once the campaign starts and you start game planning.”
“Certainly a guy who can go out in all three tries and play every opportunity in a season, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was able to do that.”
McVay said he noted that Wagner seemed “really comfortable” during the defensive installation during the spring, noting that, “it’s still soccer at the end of the day, and he’s got such a fluid way about him and he’s able to build those relationships; he’s a really nice guy.”
“He’s really a pleasure to chat with, communicating defensively,” Morris expounded. “Telling him the whys, whats, whys and hows. And then, getting his feedback. He does a great job. He’s been in this league a long time and has a great presence and leadership, so I’ll learn from him every day as well. So I’m very, very excited to work with him.”
During minicamp, Kupp talked about how “scary” the defense was, something he said will make him better because he faces that unit every day in practice. The defense possesses an elite all-around player in Donald, Wagner and corner Jalen Ramsey.
“When you talk about that they’re three guys that I think have Hall of Famers for sure, or are on their way to it,” Kupp noted. “And it’s an amazing thing to have at every level of the defense and the leadership that they have … it’s kind of scary. I’m happy, because it’s just one practice, and then we can go out and coach against that, and that will make things a little bit easier for us.”
The Rams ranked fourth in adjusted average value metrics by Football Outsiders last season, third against the pass and 10th against the run. There is little room for improvement. But, with Wagner, however, the best could be yet to come for the Los Angeles defense.
“When you have that kind of talent along the lines at all levels,” Kupp noted, “and you have to add Flo [outside linebacker Leonard Floyd] into that group and some of the other players that have played a lot for us. It’s a lot of fun to be here. It’s a lot of fun to understand how we want to do things and how we attack the day-to-day. It’s a lot of fun to be here.”
