Which player’s availability is the most important to the success of the 2026 Los Angeles Rams? What about second-most? Who would make the top-five? The winner may seem obvious, but the journey towards revealing that player in a tournament could be the most enlightening experience yet for fans curious to find out what other fans think about the players on the same team.
Your number two most-important Ram is almost certainly different than the next fan’s opinion. And your number three, your number four,
and your number 24.
I can prove it: The Tournament of Rampions.
In this bracket-style tournament, you will vote for who you think the most important Rams players are for the 2026 season. I’ll post the matchups, all you have to do is vote.
- The players will be split between offense and defense for the first two rounds.
- Seeds were based on a combination of a vote I held among TST writers before the tournament and pitting the best round 1 matchups against one another
- I already started polling Rams fans about who the most “backups” on the team are with a poll on Tuesday and you voted Blake Corum and A.J. Arcuri into the tournament.
That’s right, many of you already voted. Why stop now?
Contentions with Seeds, Snubs
As I said, nobody’s going to agree on all of this. Executive decisions were made. Argue for who you think got snubbed in the comments below. I will give you other opportunities to argue why a certain player should have made it.
“Where’s A.J. Jackson?“
While we await further news on Jackson’s recent arrest, he is not going to be a part of this tournament. As far as the Rams have to be concerned, the NFL is at least going to suspend him for six games. So we move on in this tournament with A.J. Arcuri instead. We don’t know if Arcuri will even replace Jackson at left tackle, but it’s the best assumption I can make right now. If it feels better, pretend “Arcuri” is whoever plays left tackle.
Here are the two brackets and the first two rounds of voting:
Offense
(1) Matthew Stafford (bye)
(2) Puka Nacua (bye)
(3) Kevin Dotson (bye)
(4) Davante Adams (bye)
(5) Kyren Williams
(6) Steve Avila
(7) Coleman Shelton
(8) Colby Parkinson
(9) Tyler Higbee
(10) Warren McClendon
(11) A.J. Arcuri
(12) Blake Corum
The best players who did not make this bracket are Terrance Ferguson, Max Klare, Davis Allen, Jordan Whittington, Xavier Smith, Ty Simpson, and Ronnie Rivers. Any of them could have a big impact next season, but it felt like Ferguson just didn’t do enough last year to get in over the other two tight ends.
Round 1 Matchups:
5-12 Kyren vs Corum
6-11 Avila vs Arcuri
7-10 Shelton vs McClendon
8-9 Higbee vs Parkinson
We’ll start with a RB matchup.
Kyren Williams or Blake Corum?
Williams is the starter, but some Rams fans feel like Corum should be the lead back. The 25 year old rushed for over 400 yards in the last six games of the regular season. Would it be easier to lose Williams and start Corum, or lose Corum and be left with Rivers as the second punch?
Defense
(1) Trent McDuffie (bye)
(2) Myles Garrett (bye)
(3) Quentin Lake (bye)
(4) Jaylen Watson (bye)
(5) Kobie Turner
(6) Kam Curl
(7) Byron Young
(8) Nate Landman
(9) Grant Stuard
(10) Braden Fiske
(11) Kam Kinchens
(12) Harrison Mevis
The vote I held behind the scenes actually had Myles Garrett ranked somewhat low on the totem pole relative to the star power he possesses. He fell behind Trent McDuffie in voting and many also think Quentin Lake could be more important. We’ll see how the voting plays out long-term.
Round 1 Matchups:
5-12 Turner vs Mevis
6-11 Curl vs Kinchens
7-10 Young vs Fiske
8-9 Landman vs Stuard
Weird round 1 matchup of the day…
Kobie Turner or Harrison Mevis?
I know that Harrison Mevis is not a defensive player, but I had to stick him somewhere. He was the last player to make it into the tournament and I think it provides an interesting special teams wrinkle to the game. How many people will vote that solving L.A.’s kicker problem would be more important than having Kobie Turner? I guess we will find out.
