The addition of Trent McDuffie in the offseason is already paying off dividends for the L.A. Rams defense, as they rank second in passing yards allowed, second in yards per pass allowed, and third in EPA per pass allowed through four weeks. Even with no contributions yet from Myles Garrett, or practically Aaron Donald, the Rams have received the pass defensive improvements that they desperately wanted to see from last season.
Now imagine how the defense could do with Garrett, Donald, and Jaylen Watson.
Trent McDuffie is worth it
The Rams traded a late first-round pick in 2026 for McDuffie and then paid him over $30 million per season. This was all in an effort to replace the likes of Darious Williams and company and it’s paying off. McDuffie is arguably the best cornerback in the NFL this season.
The Rams wanted to pair McDuffie with former Chiefs teammate Jaylen Watson, but Watson missed Week 4’s win over the Eagles with a shoulder injury.
And the Rams held Philadelphia to 68 net passing yards.
It certainly helps that Jalen Hurts didn’t have Devonta Smith to throw to this week, but Darius Cooper certainly earned some respect with his two touchdown catches against L.A.‘s defense. It took practically all he had for the first one to be completed, so credit to him for that.
But even so, the Rams held the Eagles to 68 passing yards with Josh Wallace starting and playing the entire game. Wallace certainly deserves more credit too: Going into Week 4, Wallace has been allowing a passer rating of 34.8 on throws in his direction.
4 games, 582 passing yards
The Rams have only allowed 582 passing yards in four games, including a season-worst 205 passing yards against the 49ers in Week 1. Only the Seahawks and Rams have held all four opponents to 205 passing yards or fewer this season.
L.A.’s defense is second in total yards per play allowed at 4.2, also behind Seattle.
One area the Rams would like to improve is forcing more turnovers, as they only have three takeaways and have yet to recover a fumble. This is at least partly related to L.A. only having three sacks and a 19% pressure rate. By comparison, the Vikings have a 36% pressure rate.
This is what Garrett was traded to help with and he has missed the last three games. He didn’t do anything in Week 1. But nobody expects Garrett to miss the entire season and his presence will change everything about the Rams’ front seven.
Per Next Gen Stats, the Rams are averaging 3.1 yards of separation between the defense and the intended receivers of the offense. That ranks as the third-best in the NFL.
Again, this highlights how sticky McDuffie and company have been in coverage this season, a major improvement from 2025.
Rams have more on the way
Garrett has to miss at least this week’s game against the Bills, and then he will be eligible to come off of IR in Week 6. However, the Rams have not indicated that they expect Garrett to return that soon.
If Garrett misses the Cardinals and Raiders games, which would mean six weeks off, he’d return against the Chargers on November 1.
Watson missed this week’s game, but McVay said that it wasn’t even up for discussion that Watson would go on IR, implying that he could return in the next two weeks.
The Rams are reportedly “optimistic” that Donald will return from a back injury in Week 5, according to Mike Garafolo.
Kam Kinchens returned from a hamstring injury in Week 4 and played in 70% of the snaps. This is actually typical for Kinchens, but perhaps he’d be even better next week.
Overall, if the Rams had this defense and only this defense, their prospects for the upcoming schedule would already be fairly good relative to other teams.
However, imagine if this was the Rams defense and then they traded for Myles Garrett, Jaylen Watson, and Aaron Donald between Weeks 5-8.
That’s kind of what could happen. And as long as the rest of the team, and McDuffie, stays on track, that could mean that the L.A. Rams’ defense is as good as we thought it could be after the offseason they used toiling to make it better.
