Going into the 2025 season, there was a was clear mandate that the Rams needed to clean up their run defense. The unit was coming off a bottom 10 season in 2024 where they were giving up 130 yards per game at a 4.6 yards per carry clip. While not all on the linebacker corps, L.A. was a bottom 5 team in drives against, number of plays, yards allowed, and time per drive.
Because of the way the Rams have indeed valued the linebacker position, much of the scorn was heaped onto them. Under the McVay regime,
and now under four different defensive coordinators, L.A. has moved towards stocking the position with late round and undrafted prospects. The only year Round 3 or better draft capital discharged was Ernest Jones at #103 in 2021 and the only big name free agent was a past-his-prime Bobby Wagner in 2022.
Very little support was added in the 2026 free agency and draft. Grant Stuard was brought aboard, but heis almost exclusively a special teams contributor. There just weren’t many desirable options on the pro market and the draft difference makers were all off the board by the time the Rams made their Round 2 pick at #26. L.A. decided to stand pat at linebacker.
Where the Rams did improve was at edge and cornerback. These upgrades should, in theory, offer the linebacking unit strong support. If play at the second level does not match up, those players will be under the microscope, one with bright, hot lights.
Last year’s defensive snaps are along with players names in bold.
The starters
Nate Landman (1017), Omar Speights (673)
Run stopping
Stopping the run is both players strong suit. Both are downhill players that play a physical brand of football. Both are also good tacklers, under 10 percent missed. The should get their share of credit in Rams run defense improvement. From the Bottom 10 to inside the Top 15. The Rams came down to 110.8 yards per game at 4.3 per carry. The incremental drop had a chain effect, also upgrading the defensive drive chart numbers, number of plays, yards per drive, and time per drive. It may not appear to be a great uptick, but allowed the offense to regain time of possession control.
Pass coverage
Looking at 2025 film, the Rams linebackers were a weak link in pass defense. Opponents play-action pass game was highly successful against the Rams. In their base 3-4, with both linebackers on the field, opponents completed passes at a 78 percent clip with 10.9 yards per attempt. Both numbers ranked L.A. at 31st in the NFL. Although the linebackers don’t deserve to shoulder all the blame, it is a fair indicator of the interior pass coverage could stand upgrading. Just for comparison, when the Rams were defending play-action in “dime” and had five defensive backs on the field, the completion rate dropped to 64.2 percent and
Although Landman did break up six passes, he allowed a 70 percent completion rate and quarterback rating of 111. Those numbers aren’t a one-off, his career numbers are quite similar. Speights fared slightly better, even though he was subbed out in many pass situations. He only broke up one pass, allowed a 63.6 percent completion rate, and QB rating of 75.4.
Even though the Rams led the NFL is using “dime” personnel at 32.4 percent, the snaps didn’t necessarily all come at the expense of LB#2, in this case Speights, as they had in previous seasons. In fact, Speights’ snap count (673) was the highest for that position since 2017 when hybrid S/LB Mark Barron was patrolling the Rams middle.
The backups
Grant Stuard (13-DET) has been around the longest,five seasonsis known as a special teams warrior who works all four phases of coverage and returns. He hasn’t however, brought much to the defensive side of the ball. In 2024, he had his most defensive snaps, 229 in five starts. He’s a five-year veteran and the Rams like their veterans, but if Stuard is getting more than mop up defensive snaps, things will have likely gone way off course.
Shaun Dolac (42) doesn’t get the respect he deserves. Yes, he is a few pounds on the small side, but when scouts and pundits bemoaned his athletic traits, he went out and tested in the Top 30 percentile across the board. When the same experts equated his top-tier college production to the level of competition, he not only made the Rams roster (a tough task), but was a bright spot in a dismal special teams year. All that said, he’s got to really show out to pass up the now entrenched Omar Speights. Will 2026 be the year he puts together his sneaky good athleticism and field marshaling to use?
Nikhai Hill-Green (R) is a shade bigger and longer and also a shade less athletic overall than Dolac. While not a mirror match, it’s close enough to claim comparable similarity. The Michigan Wolverines circa 2019, weren’t recruiting second-tier prospects. While things didn’t work out in Ann Arbor for Hill-Green, He had two strong seasons in the Big12 and SEC, showing that he can handle pass coverage duties. His route to the Rams roster is through special teams.
Elias Neal (PS) will be likely be battling for a practice squad berth in hid third Rams season. A hard-working player with good football IQ and instincts. Although bouncing between the active roster and practice squad, he actually made the opening roster as an undrafted rookie in 2024. Has seen action in eight games over his two seasons, but hasn’t recorded a defensive snap.
Conclusions
With no major additions to the unit, it appears the Rams are quite comfortable with them. Defending the run are the Rams linebackers strong suit, if they can show another incremental step up in 2026, the Rams could have a very tough defense. The expected improvement in pass rush and secondary, along with “dime” coverages should help to mask the deficiencies of the linebackers pass coverage.
It might be the Rams wise move in to sub out Landman instead of Speights in passing situations. Landman is smart and tough, but limited in his move skills and exploitable in coverage. It would be tough to move him out, L.A. was really impressed by, from Day 1, with his play. He was given the green dot (captain/playcaller) within the 1st week of joining the team and had his contract extended in the middle of that first year.
Yet, Speights showed solid improvement over his rookie season and got a nice raise in reps. His numbers back, particularly in coverage, more work. Is Landman’s play in/play out leadership enough to overlook his deficiency in pass coverage? In theory, the Rams could go to six defensive backs, but the overall defense would be better if they can identify a coverage linebacker and keep him on the field in passing situations. I think it should be Speights.
