Getty Aaron Donald tussles down Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks during the Los Angeles Rams' NFC Wildcard playoff win in January 2021. Donald is helping spearhead a top five defensive line unit for 2021 according to Pro Football Focus.
On one side of the line of scrimmage, the Los Angeles Rams have the eighth best offensive line unit for the upcoming 2021 season according to Pro Football Focus.
So what about the other trench representatives at the “Rams House?”
Turns out PFF, the analytics site that’s been in existence since 2007, is high on the Rams’ defensive line. To the point they’ve climbed four spots from a season ago.
The June 7 PFF article highlighting the league’s best defensive lines placed the Rams at No. 4 overall, a jump from last year’s No. 8 ranking.
The Pittsburgh Steelers continue to be labeled the league’s best DL group by PFF. The Washington Football Team and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finished ahead of the Rams at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, in the defensive line rankings.
Any fan who follows PFF is likely aware of the analytics site’s affinity for Aaron Donald, who has held the No. 1 spot in their top 50 player rankings since 2017, even calling the Rams defensive lineman a “unicorn” or “the best player in the NFL by a distance.” Looks like PFF is equally high on Donald’s trench teammates.
The Explanation Behind the Jump by PFF
One year ago, PFF’s Sam Monson wrote up the top 32 DL units. In plugging the Rams in the top 10 at eighth overall, he pointed out that Donald had a lack of line of scrimmage help.
“The team’s problem has been assembling a supporting cast capable of helping Donald maximize his impact,” Monson wrote.
Monson mentioned Dante Fowler being that co-star in the trenches next to Donald, but Fowler defecting to Atlanta in the 2020 offseason led to Monson typing “somebody else needs to step up.”
Donald still managed 13.5 sacks along the line. However, the Rams still have to replace all three of their next best line pass rushers opposite of Donald from 2020: Brockers (Lions), Morgan Fox (Carolina) and Samson Ebukam (San Francisco). All three combined for 15.5 sacks.
This time, Ben Linsey compiled the 2021 DL rankings. Here’s what he wrote about this year’s Ram front line:
“The Rams don’t have the same quality of depth as the other top-five defensive lines in these rankings. But does it matter when they boast the single most disruptive force in the NFL? Aaron Donald’s 456 pressures over the past five seasons are 86 more than any other defender despite the fact that he saw a consistent barrage of double and triple teams. The attention he commands frees up other players to enjoy career years, as Dante Fowler Jr. and Leonard Floyd can attest. Los Angeles will have to replace Michael Brockers, whose 5,658 regular-season snaps since joining the Rams in 2012 rank ninth among all players at the position.”
Why Changes Among Fellow DL’s Could Lead to Higher Ranking
Sure, Fowler and Brockers are huge losses, with the latter now representing the biggest gap to fill. The Rams additionally have to adjust to Raheem Morris as the new defensive coordinator.
One difference Morris’s predecessor Brandon Staley had as the Rams’ leader of the defense was his background as a former DL coach. Staley ran some unorthodox looks on defense from throwing in a “5-0” look with five down linemen to lining up Donald as a defensive end, only to stunt him inside and confuse offensive linemen.
But Morris will be working with much more than Donald along the line. He’ll coach a slimmer A’Shawn Robinson, who has dropped nearly 30 pounds to become quicker off the ball, and nose tackle Sebastian Joseph-Day, who has worked diligently this offseason perfecting his pass rushing techniques. They added length and power on the line through the draft as well, adding 6-foot-5, 270-pound end Earnest Brown IV from Northwestern who has “NFL size and power” according to nfl.com’s Lance Zierlein and drafting Bobby Brown III from Texas A&M, who is expected to provide muscle and depth at the nose spot.
The Rams’ line has had a nice climb that’s noticed by PFF. But this version looks younger, quicker and fiery under Morris – which could lead to an even higher ranking for this group by season’s end.