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7 underdog LA Rams UDFAs who have real shot to earn roster spot
These seven LA Rams UDFAs may be underdogs, but they have real shots to earn spots on the Rams' roster for the 2020 NFL season.
ramblinfan.com
Bret Stuter
The LA Rams roster restocking is meeting a bit of a hitch this season. With no OTAs, a brief training camp, and shorter preseason schedule, the rookies who signed contracts with the team after the 2020 NFL Draft have their work cut out for them. While the path to the 55-man roster was always an uphill climb, the slope has become far steeper. After all, the road to the NFL happens in three ways.
Either a player is heavily scouted, analyzed, assessed, and drafted by the team. The second avenue is for a player’s college coaching staff to contact the coaches of NFL teams prior to the draft and lobby for that player’s selection. Finally, players who have profile characteristics or a niche role are signed by the team after the draft to round out the team’s 90 man roster. They are signed without much coaching debate, staff review, organization meetings, or buy-in from coaches. They commit to NFL teams that have a list of player characteristics of players to sign up.
Just add time + opportunity and shake well
Undrafted players simply need the time and opportunities to compete for roster spots, The reason is that returning players and even drafted players hold a distinct advantage over undrafted players. Those signing after the NFL Draft are made by the personnel department to round the roster up to 90. Coaches are not as familiar with their backgrounds and become familiar with them on the practice field and in preseason games.
Those avenues are shorter and more narrow now. Slip up on any opportunity can be a significant blow to the hopes of a long and prosperous NFL career. But that will only forge a stronger resolve for these players. But the winds of fortune have changed direction once more. In the latest reports about the 2020 NFL Season, teams may be forced to shave an additional $40 million from their salary in 2020 to prepare for the steep drop projected for 2021. Instantly, the inexpensive cost of players signed up after the 2020 NFL Draft has an added financial incentive to make the team. Who might benefit? We have seven players on our radar:
Defensive back Levonta Taylor
Levonta Taylor may not be on your radar, but he soon will be. The moment defensive back Levonta Taylor’s name appeared in the LA Rams list of players signed after the draft, the buzz began. I admit that while I liked the pick, the feedback I began to receive indicated that many expected his name to be called as early as day two of the 2020 NFL Draft. After all, he has the skills of both a safety and a cornerback. That’s the combination that is the top of the shopping list for so many NFL teams now, as the offense has gone from speed to size in the receiving game.
His draft profile does not highlight an elite playmaker. Nor does it discount the player. it describes a player who arrived as an elite talent, suffered back and hamstrings in his junior season, and was not the same when he returned to the field. Can the Rams coaching staff be the right folks to crack the code and unleash all of Taylor’s talent in a defense? If he is willing to put in the work, yes.
Versatile enough to win a spot
Athletically, he is gifted. Like 99th percentile gifted. And he’s versatile. He’s a strong background at both cornerback and safety in college. If you want a video treat, we have one for you HERE IN THIS WORKOUT VIDEO. His back and hamstring issues were enough to create a medical flag, and NFL teams were skittish enough to steer clear of any unknowns on prospects with so many unknowns to manage in terms of the season.
While he won’t have many opportunities to flash brilliance for the Rams defensive coaching staff, his pedigree and versatility may afford him an opportunity to show the team what he can do for them this season. If he is healthy, he can shine. Oh, how he can shine! In fact, the short training camp and no preseason games may actually work in his favor. He is an athletic superstar, and as such will no doubt generate plenty of buzz in training camp. Keep him on your radar.
Running back Xavier Jones
How can the NCAA scoring leader from 2019 fall out of the NFL Draft? I truly do not have an answer, merely thanks that it happened. There are some players in the NFL who do not test as fast as track stars, do not have the agility of a figure skater, do not possess the strength of Hercules, nor the height of Andre the Giant, and yet seem to do quite well when the football pads go on.
Xavier Jones is that type of football player. Most draft profiles describe an average athlete with a tough-as-nails mindset. Sorry, folks, but I’m perfectly fine with that considering this young man’s ability to score. At will, from anywhere on the field. After all, isn’t that what the goal is for every running back each time they get the ball? It most certainly is, and therefore Jones was the most successful running back in college last year.
Oversized underdog?
Xavier Jones stands 5-foot-11 and weighs in at 208-pounds. That places him as tall as veteran running back Malcolm Brown, and yet as light as speedy running back Darrell Henderson. Despite his overwhelming success on the ground in 2019, he brings a dangerous skillset in the passing game as well. In fact, he will very much give the Rams offense many options to use him effectively.
Of course, the consensus seems to be that the Rams will simply slap the roster spots to any player returning from 2019. But the Rams truly made almost little to no use of either running back Malcolm Brown or Darrell Henderson last year, and practice squad running back John Kelly never got his foot in the door. The Rams drafted Cam Akers to fill the vacated role of Todd Gurley. But will he fill that role completely? If not, will the Rams consider another running back? If so, Jones is incredibly intriguing as a surprise roster addition.
Center Cohl Cabral
This could be about the player, or it could be about the position. The LA Rams urgently need to find the player in 2020 who can solidify the center role for years to come. The only new interior offensive lineman signed by the Rams this offseason, Cohl Cabral
was an addition to the team at a position where the Rams passed drafting because they felt the available options were no better than players on the current roster. But then, in a move that seemed to go against that logic, the team committed to a new center.
Per NFL.com’s 2020 NFL Draft ranking, Cabral was the eighth-ranked center available in the 2020 NFL Draft, and the Rams signed him without the use of a draft pick. One of the most intriguing qualities about Cabral is that he has both left tackle and center experience, and those are certainly two hotspots on the LA Rams offensive line this year and into the future. Which prompts the question: do the Rams see Cabral as a pure center, or as a player who can develop as Andrew Whitworths eventual replacement?
Center of focus
For now, we’ll go with the center position. While the Rams are already on the threshold of anointing returning veteran Austin Blythe as the starter, I’m skeptical that he will retain that designation all season. He was thrust into the role simply because Brian Allen was out for the season and the Rams struggled at protecting the interior. Even with his play, the Rams struggled to run the ball between the offensive tackles, and the pass protection still needed to improve blocking A-gap blitzes.
That’s hardly a strong endorsement of “keep things as they were”. In fact, if any center shows a spark of competency at the position, I have to believe that the Rams will roll the dice in the hopes that he will improve as the season goes on. I believe that Cabral is truly the most talented center on the roster. Whether that will translate into a surprise starting role remains to be determined. But Cabral has a shot. For a season with the deck stacked so significantly against an undrafted rookie making an NFL roster, that’s significant.
Defensive end Sam Renner
Minnesota defensive lineman Sam Renner is a player competing in a crowded field of the Rams defensive lineman. But he’s a bit special. How so? Well, at 6-foot-4 and 275-pounds, he has plenty of height and weight to bulk up for an interior role on the defensive line or remain sleek for a defensive end role. In his senior year, he racked up 43 tackles, five sacks, and four defended passes. In a defense looking to confuse the quarterback, imagine the defensive ending bouncing up to take a role in defending the pass?
Renner has an uphill battle steeper than any other player on this list. Not only are the LA Rams set with six quality defensive linemen, but the team truly signed on some quality competition after the 2020 NFL Draft as well. Still, Renner should be up for the challenge. He’s good, very good. And if the Rams had a preseason, he would be filling Rams’ highlight reels with solid play up front. In fact, he was interviewed after signing with the Rams, and he is excited at the chance.
Work ethic counts most this year
Renner is a blue-collar type who puts in the work and lets his play do his talking for him. He’s already gotten a bit of buzz from Pro Football Focus, who had ranked him in terms of interior defensive lineman in the draft. They graded him second on tackling, eleventh on the pass rush, and 22nd on sacks. That’s pretty special for an interior defensive lineman, particularly one who falls out of the draft.
Renner is one of the undervalued players who helped buoy the Minnesota Golden Gophers’ success in recent years. One of the characteristics about him is that he arrives polished. While all players benefit from the weight room, coaching, and training camp, Renner has a good understanding of tackling and leveraging. Even if he lands on special teams as a tackler specialist, that is enough to get his foot in the door. After that, opportunities will come. When they do, he will make the most of them.
Return Specialist Brandon Polk
Many asked why the LA Rams were willing to trade veteran speedy wide receiver Brandin Cooks in the off-season. Can you believe that they got faster at the position? Well, it seems that the team did exactly that as soon as they signed up wide receiver Brandon Polk. For now, I’ve limited his contribution to special teams as a return specialist, but he could prove to be much more once the team has an opportunity to see him run routes and catch passes.
While he is just 5-foot-9 and 180-pounds, he simply outruns coverages with his blinding 4.28-second 40-yard dash. That’s fast, faster than even the 4.33-second 40-yard dash time of former Rams wide receiver Branon Cooks. And that speed can be used effectively in so many ways by head coach Sean McVay and special teams coordinator John Bonamego.
Recruited to the Rams?
The interesting fact about Polk is that in the weeks leading up to the draft, the Rams were in frequent communication with him. That’s hardly the type of action a team takes for a player the team intended to draft. Instead, it’s the type of action a team takes to attract the interest of a priority free agent signed after the 2020 NFL Draft, which is exactly what the Rams did. Of course, during those frequent conversations, the team sold Polk on the likelihood of using him in the return game as well as an option as a receiver.
As a receiver, he is dangerous. In his senior year, he caught 79 passes for 1,179 yards and 11 touchdowns. While that’s impressive enough, he could be even more dangerous as a return specialist. He averaged nearly 26 yards on kickoff returns and the Rams certainly will be interested in improving in both the punt and kickoff return areas. Since he is a multi-dimensional threat in so many ways, he could sneak onto the Rams roster. If he does, he’ll be a lot of fun to watch!
Wide Receiver Easop Winston
Some things feel like destiny. Washington State University’s Easop Winston feels like that type of player. He’s an explosive, resourceful, and very talented wide receiver ascends from former head coach Mike Leach’s offensive aerial assault to Rams’ head coach Sean McVay‘s offensive aerial assault. He is an energetic, entertaining, and extremely talented receiver who deserves to make the team’s roster if nothing else, simply for the reaction of the entire family when he got the call from the LA Rams that they wanted to sign him up.
He is pretty wise for his age to be honest. And he is pretty talented. Throw out everything you think you know about drafted versus undrafted rookies. Winston is deadly dangerous, a highly-skilled route runner who timed his emergence from college football to coincide in one of the deepest wide receiver classes in modern times. For example, Pro Football Focus released the ranking of the 2020 NFL Draft prospects in work against man coverage, and Easop Winston Jr. ranked third, just behind Laviska Shenault Jr. (42nd player selected) and Tee Higgins (33rd player selected).
Did he make pro-caliber quarterbacks?
Easop Winston Jr. caught passes from two quarterbacks in his college career. Gardner Minshew, who is now the starting quarterback for the Jacksonville Jaguars. He also caught passes from Anthony Gordon, who signed a contract to play for the Seattle Seahawks. So along the same lines of the question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did he make his quarterbacks good enough to attract NFL team interest, or did his quarterbacks make him good enough to attract the LA Rams attention?
While you ponder the answer to that question, keep in mind that the San Francisco 49ers were hot on Winston’s heels, comparing him to outgoing free agent WR Emmanuel Sanders. Winston is 5-foot-11, 190-pounds, runs a 4.4-second 40-yard dash, and rarely drops the ball. He was the primary target of both Minshew and Gordon because he had great hands. He was a draft target for the 49ers because he had great hands. He was signed by the LA Rams because he has great hands.
Wide Receiver Trishton Jackson
Some players fall in the NFL Draft for unexplained reasons. So it is that Syracuse wide receiver Trishton Jackson was the highest-rated wide receiver in the 2020 NFL Draft to go unselected. That means that players were drafted in rounds three and later who were scouted as inferior players. That information alone gives Jackson an incredible amount of intrigue.
In reading his draft profiles, his only flaw was a highly talented young man who needed additional coaching work to truly realize his full potential. His draft profile was scored at 6.00. That score is better than backup/reserve, special teams player, and just under good backup who could become a starter someday. Projected as a prospect who would be selected at round five draft, the depth of this wide receiver class simply dropped him out of the draft. His 9 3/4″ hands are some of the larger hands measured at the 2020 NFL Scouting Combine. He was also the fourth-ranked wide receiver prospect by Rotoworld in the draft based on their dominator rating.
Very good talent + WR/QB = chance for Rams roster role
Jackson is another player who was talented enough to be a drafted prospect. He is a great size at 6-foot-1 and 197 pounds. He possesses decent speed with a 4.5-second 40-yard dash. And we’ve covered the decent-sized hands at 9-3/4-inches plus a nice reach at 32-3/8-inch arms. He was a former dual-threat quarterback who switched to a receiver role. Due to transfer rules, he only truly broke out in his senior season when he caught 66 passes for 1,023 yards and 11 touchdowns.
He is new to the world of catching the football, but that quarterback/wide receiver combination sounds like something head coach Sean McVay could work with, doesn’t it? We know that McVay is no stranger to using receivers to help break the running game out of a low performing funk. Imagine what he could do in terms of a run-pass-option from a wide receiver who fakes a run and passes to the endzone? I can too, and it brings a smile to my face every time I do.
