It is hard to mince words when talking about the 2024 Los Angeles Rams defense. It has just been bad. Ahead of the Green Bay Packers game, it was evident that a change was coming. They moved Tre’Davious White, who had played 97 percent of the team’s snaps, to the inactive list. This came after getting Darious Williams back from the injured reserve and moving Ahkello Witherspoon up from the practice squad.
In his post-game press conference, McVay said making White inactive was a coach’s decision, that he has handled it like a professional, and that he saw a bigger role for Whitherspoon, taking into consideration some special teams influence.
Los Angeles Rams Defense Makes Sweeping Changes To The Secondary
That wasn’t the end of the changes made. The Rams also gave two undrafted rookies significant playing time. Josh Wallace and Jaylen McCollough made the first starts of their career. Wallace moved to nickel and rookie third-rounder Kamren Kinchens was benched. He had been filling in at safety once John Johnson hit the injured reserve. And Quentin Lake, who was the team’s slot defender moved back to safety.
McVay was also asked about these changes.
“We’ll observe everything. When you’re in these situations, we have to do a good job of making sure that we look at the totality of everything, regardless of position, and make sure that you know we’re doing a great job of trying to make sure that we play as good of football as we can”
It is possible that these changes helped the Rams defense. They held Jordan Love to 224 yards, who had been averaging 324 yards this year. The Rams defense was 21st against the pass, allowing 219 yards per game. But, they were second to last in EPA per play and 29th in dropback success rate.
“I thought they did a good job.” McVay said. “Really with the exception of the one long one that they had I had to [Tucker] Kraft but you look at it overall I was really pleased. We were sticky in coverage we were connected. It wasn’t until really late in the game that they got their first third-down conversion. Reed makes a great play where we’ve got three guys in position. It was like the ball went in the only spot that it could to be able to make that play but overall it seemed like they played pretty well.”
