The Los Angeles Rams’ initial 53-man roster features a vastly overhauled defense, but the new additions could create schematic challenges that defensive coordinator Chris Shula will have to navigate.
For the first time in his career, two-time AP NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett is listed as an outside linebacker on his team’s unofficial depth chart. Garrett, who primarily played as a traditional 4-3 defensive end throughout his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, began the Rams’ offseason training program with outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio.
Shula was asked in June if the team was considering a structural change to the defensive front, but he suggested that the Rams would accommodate Garrett within their current 3-4 structure.
“Obviously, we’re still going to have our principals with that stuff, but we’re going to let him do what he does best and we all know exactly what he does best,” Shula said, according to the team’s website. “You’re not going to take Michael Jordan, LeBron [James], all those guys and pull them out of their comfort zone. We’re going to work with him and put him in the best spots that we think for him and the defense to succeed.”
Shula’s defense inherits its player-first approach from Wade Phillips, who brought the 3-4 defensive front to Los Angeles in 2017. While a traditional 3-4 defensive tackle is tasked with occupying space in a two-gap role, Phillips kept defensive tackle Aaron Donald in attacking alignments and moved him across the line to create one-on-one opportunities.
Shula will adapt his defense to fit Garrett’s strengths in a similar fashion, making the positional designation on the depth chart little more than a formality.
Los Angeles has continued to use a 3-4 base defense under Shula, but they often featured a front with five defensive linemen and primarily lived in nickel packages. The Rams deployed five defensive backs on 42.2 percent of their defensive snaps last season, according to Roll Coverage. They were also in dime personnel with six defensive backs on 32.6 percent of their plays, the highest rate in the league.
Chris Shula’s scheme could determine Rams’ success
Los Angeles has always understood the importance of a star-studded cast, but the director’s burden is ensuring that all of those stars belong in the same picture. Rams general manager Les Snead built a defensive roster that is brimming with potential, but Shula will have to turn those individual players into a cohesive unit if Los Angeles wants to compete for a Lombardi Trophy. As Bill Belichick often said, games are won by building a team, not by collecting talent.
For much of Shula’s first two seasons as the Rams’ defensive coordinator, innovation was a form of necessity. He manufactured pressure with simulated rushes, blurred coverage responsibilities with late rotations and relied heavily on dime packages to shrink the field for his young players. Those disguises masked vulnerabilities and allowed the Rams’ defense to appear more complete than it was, but the unit’s weaknesses were ultimately too much to overcome.
The Rams succumbed to the eventual Super Bowl champions in each of their previous two postseason runs. Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley gashed the Rams on the ground in the divisional round to end their 2024 campaign. Last season, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold carved them up through the air in the NFC championship game.
With an aging quarterback at the helm and consecutive defensive letdowns in the postseason, Los Angeles could no longer afford to wait for their defense to develop into a championship-caliber unit.
After years of austerity, Rams general manager Les Snead accelerated the process this offseason by assembling a defense with enough star power to rival Hollywood. Aaron Donald ended his two-year retirement after the Rams acquired Garrett in a blockbuster trade, cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson arrived from the Kansas City Chiefs to rebuild the cornerback room, and linebacker Grant Stuard was brought in to add veteran experience.
Los Angeles ranked last in defensive salary cap spending in each of the past three seasons, according to Over the Cap. With their high-profile additions and lucrative extensions for Kamren Curl, Quentin Lake and Nate Landman, the Rams committed $104.8 million of their 2026 salary cap space to their defense. That’s nearly twice as much as last season’s $54.2 million figure.
McDuffie and Watson could bring scheme versatility to Rams
McDuffie and Watson have been among the league’s premier players, but they have spent their careers playing in vastly different schemes than Shula’s zone-heavy pattern-match system. The Chiefs played significantly more man coverage last season than the Rams. Los Angeles tallied a man coverage rate of just 25.2 percent, according to Roll Coverage.
Despite the schematic differences, both former Kansas City cornerbacks have the tools to thrive in Los Angeles. McDuffie and Watson possess the ability to play press coverage, which could also unlock more versatile and exotic coverages in Shula’s defense.
Schematic versatility isn’t a foreign concept to Shula. The Rams entered Week 18 of the 2025 regular season with the fifth-highest rate of defensive scheme diversity, according to Cody Alexander of MatchQuarters. That figure could continue to grow. In 2026, Shula will no longer have to construct an illusion of abundance. Equipped with veteran talent at every level, he will have the ability to change the picture without changing the personnel.
Rather than forcing Garrett into a 3-4 defense or locking McDuffie into a role as the outside cornerback, the Rams possess the talent to make those positional distinctions lose their usefulness. That optionality could prove to be the biggest challenge opposing offenses face against the Rams.
Ultimately, what Shula does with this defense will determine whether the Rams have built a collection of stars or a team worthy of championships.
Rams change Myles Garrett’s position in revamped defense