Throughout the Sean McVay era with the Los Angeles Rams, this has not been a team that has heavily invested in the linebacker position. It has consistently been a spot occupied by an undrafted free agent or late-round draft pick. The highest the Rams have taken a linebacker was Ernest Jones in 2021 with the 103rd overall pick.
It seemed as if the Rams were taking a similar approach this offseason. They didn’t draft a linebacker until the fifth round and opted not to bring back Christian Rozeboom.
Instead, the Rams signed Nate Landman from the Atlanta Falcons for the veteran minimum of $1.1 million.
To say Nate Landman was one of the best value free agent signings of the spring would be an understatement. For the first 11 weeks of the season, Landman was playing like a top-15 linebacker, was seventh in tackles, and had an impressive four forced fumbles.
While Landman had his deficiencies in coverage, the Rams and defensive coordinator Chris Shula have typically been able to scheme around that with the help of the safeties. Where Landman’s impact was really felt was in the run game. For those first 11 weeks of the season, the Rams were allowing just 3.87 yards per carry with a 47.7 percent success rate. Both of those numbers ranked inside the top 10. Their -0.15 EPA per rush allowed ranked third.
Landman had become a leader and an important piece of the defense. Given how Landman was playing, the Rams went against their typical model and paid Landman prior to Week 12, signing him to a 3-year, $22.5 million extension. It wasn’t necessarily breaking the bank on Landman, but certainly a pay raise and more than the Rams have invested in the position in the past.
However, since then, Landman’s level has dropped and therefore so has the defense as a whole. Player grades from Pro Football Focus certainly aren’t the end-all, be-all and can lack context. With that said, it’s also a good visualization of how Landman’s level has dropped. Even if the grades themselves are ignored, Landman’s missed tackle rate has more than doubled.
Landman has had three missed tackles in each of the last two games. His nine missed tackles since Week 12 are the fourth-most in the NFL and his 19.1 percent missed tackle rate is the fifth-highest. Landman had seven missed tackles in the first 11 weeks of the season. He has nine over just the last five weeks.
It isn’t just bad, it’s Troy Reeder levels of bad. In fact, it’s arguably worse. When Reeder started the first six games of the 2024 season, his missed tackle rate was 11.5 percent. In coverage, he allowed 14-of-19 targets. Again, since Week 12, Landman has a missed tackle rate of 19.1 percent and has allowed 12-of-15 targets in coverage.
During that same time span, the Rams have gone from being a great run defense to a below-average one at best. They are allowing 4.96 yards per carry since Week 12. They still have a top-10 success rate allowed at 45.3 percent, but 35.6 percent of their rushing yards allowed have come from explosive runs. That’s the fourth-highest.
This was a Rams defense that was built to stop that this offseason and Landman was a big part of that. The timing of paying players is always a double-edged sword. Pay them too early and you risk their level dropping. However, had the Rams waited, they may have risked Landman’s market value in free agency going up.
Still, it may have benefitted the Rams to wait to pay Landman until the summer. Things like forced fumbles can be a high variance stat. His athletic deficiencies and inability to stay ahead of blockers within the flow of the play have always limited his ceiling.
That isn’t to say that Landman isn’t a good player and they didn’t break the bank by any means to extend him. In terms of average salary per year, Landman ranks 27th. The Rams got Landman for an average of $7.5 million when his OverTheCap evaluation has him at close to $11 million. As of now, he only has one year in 2028 in which he’ll be paid as a top-10 linebacker and that will drop within the next three years.
This doesn’t seem to be a case of a player getting paid and then not playing as hard. There is no questioning Landman’s effort in games. This may simply be a case of Landman being on a three-month heater and now experiencing a regression to the mean.
For the Rams defense to improve as they go into the playoffs, they need the Nate Landman they paid before Week 12. As seen early in the season, Landman can be one of the most important players on the defense. They simply need him to be better.
