Corey Littleton a Priority per Steve Wyche

[Merlin]

View: https://twitter.com/camdasilva/status/1232655697046835200https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2020/02/26/la-rams-cory-littleton-free-agency-priority/
Sean McVay says keeping Cory Littleton is a priority for the Rams

Cameron DaSilva

7 hours ago
Cory Littleton has become an integral part of the Rams defense. Unfortunately for Los Angeles, he’s not under contract for the 2020 season and will become a free agent in March if the Rams can’t sign him to a long-term deal.

He’s among five starters set to hit the market next month, but given the progress he’s made and the team’s lack of depth behind him at linebacker, it’s easy to see why Littleton would be a high priority for the Rams.

Steve Wyche of NFL Network talked to Sean McVay on Tuesday at the combine and says McVay told him Littleton is someone they want to bring back. Based on the way Wyche made it sound, Littleton is at or near the top of the list for the Rams.

“Dante Fowler, their stud pass rusher, he’s a free agent. They said they want to re-sign him. Michael Brockers, a defensive lineman, a veteran – going to be tough to re-sign him because there will be a market for Brockers,” Wyche said. “But Cory Littleton, the free-agent middle linebacker, McVay said that is a priority for him. With some of the tweaks they’re going to make in their new defensive scheme, they want to keep him.”


View: https://twitter.com/wyche89/status/1232425559348719616

Littleton was arguably the Rams’ second-most important defender behind Aaron Donald in 2019. He made 134 tackles (6 for a loss), 3.5 sacks, four fumble recoveries, nine passes defensed and two interceptions. In the last two years alone, he has 125 tackles, five interceptions, 15 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks.

Those numbers show that he’s always around the ball, whether it’s making solo stops, recovering fumbles when the ball is on the turf or breaking up passes over the middle. It’s hard to replace that sort of production, and Littleton is only getting better with each passing year.

Deciding between him and Fowler will be extremely tough for the Rams, but they can most likely only keep one with their limited cap space and number of free agents needed to re-sign.

Free agency opens on March 18 with the legal tampering period beginning two days prior. The Rams have until then to work out a deal with Littleton before the 31 other teams can start negotiating with him, too.

 

[Merlin]

Personally I think it will be a mistake to give him the top pay retaining him will require. In fact I'll bet they will be trying to get out from under the contract by next year if they do pay him top money. But hope I'm wrong of course.

 

[FrantikRam]

My first thought was, what else would McVay say? This doesn't mean much.

But they don't have the best decision making skills when it comes to our own free agents....so wouldn't shock me.

 

[OldSchool]

We've seen him say the same thing about every free agent the last few years. We saw him say it yesterday about Fowler and Whitworth as well. Read into offseason coach/gm speak as you want.

 

[Merlin]

We've seen him say the same thing about every free agent the last few years. We saw him say it yesterday about Fowler and Whitworth as well. Read into offseason coach/gm speak as you want.

Well this time around Wyche is saying McVay told him Littleton was a priority moreso than the others due to tweaks they plan to make in their scheme.

 

[Jacobarch]

He's probably going to test the market knowing the rams are up against the cap, and there's not that much we can do about it at this point as we already have holes elsewhere on the team. Obviously this is what the FO and HC get paid to do so I expect them to get creative with some of the players contracts and renegotiating Goffs and esp Gurelys.

As far as littleton goes, I still feel he's playing out of position and should be playing more of Mark Barrons role, he's just as good if not better in coverage and doesn't get washed out as often in the run game. If they do have that in store for him they wouldn't view him in the same way if he were to stick with the MLB role as the WSLB gets paid a lot less. I dunno just food for thought.

 

[OldSchool]

Well this time around Wyche is saying McVay told him Littleton was a priority moreso than the others due to tweaks they plan to make in their scheme.

I read that already and still would say the same thing. We can get a similar comment from him about all our free agents and even would get a similar comment about anybody they trade or waive. They’re good players and important to the team yadda yadda yadda

 

[oldnotdead]

What is McVay supposed to say? Cory is a good player but let's get real. He's very limited in how they use him. He's good in zone coverage but simply can't play man coverage. They need LBs that can play in both man and zone. Cory lacks the speed to play man coverage.

IMO they need to play more man coverages by their LBs to force the QB to hold the ball a second or two longer. If the QB knows they are playing zone with their LBs it's too easy for him.

Look at their 4 man ILB rotation: Howard, Reed, Young and Kiser all run a 4.6 giving the Rams outstanding LB speed. Add in Fowler (4.6) and Ebukam (4.55) and the entire LB corps is fast. Littleton runs a 4.73 by comparison. It's why Cory gets smoked in man coverage. So he's basically at most a 2 down player if they play the defense as it's meant to be played.

Cory is a good player but he's not a scheme fit IMO.

 

[Merlin]

Hope you guys are right.

 

[Psycho_X]

He should be, he’s their best free agent. Doesn’t mean his open market value will warrant us resigning him but he should be priority. Was wishing we could keep Brockers too but I thought he’d be cheaper (relatively speaking). Fowler I never had any expectations of keeping. Someone will throw stupid money at him that we’ll need for Ramsey. Hopefully OBO can make a jump and we draft well.

 

[wolfdogg]

Outside of ramsey our secondary is dirt cheap for the overall quality.

Outside of donald our dline will also be relatively inexpensive as i expect the rams to let brockers sign elsewhere.

Im not sure how much they can save by cutting clay but i would be ok with that if it helps keep cory and Fowler, however, if i had to choose one of them id probably keep cory. Hell be cheaper and there are more potential replacements for Fowler already on the roster. In other words, i think wed have an easier time replacing fowlers pass rush than corys pass coverage and tackling.

Theres about 100 starting linebackers in the NFL and cory is 9th in coverage and eighth in tackles so theres an argument that he's in the top 10 or elite group, as weird as that sounds, and if the rams new defense uses more 4 man fronts, than that tweak will probably need cory more than Fowler.

 

[kurtfaulk]

.

He's their priority until they find out they have to pay him $15m per year.

.

 

[Kevin]

Hope you guys are right.

Lol, it doesn’t matter because none of us are making any decisions!

 

[dang]

It’s bang for the buck. i don’t see Rams paying $14m+ for Littleton or $16m+ for Fowler. not because they don’t want them but they can’t afford them.

 

[LARams_1963]

Ogletree just got cut as a cap casualty......

 

[Ram65]

“But Cory Littleton, the free-agent middle linebacker, McVay said that is a priority for him. With some of the tweaks they’re going to make in their new defensive scheme, they want to keep him.”

McVay is a master of finesse when talking about Ram players and their future. In this case, he could be upfront about wanting Cl to remain a Ram. I'll be interested to see what happens. I don't think it is the end of the world if CL remains a Ram. I think they may want CL to pass rush a little more. I think they want a defense that keeps offensives guessing.

 

[8to12]

What is McVay supposed to say? Cory is a good player but let's get real. He's very limited in how they use him. He's good in zone coverage but simply can't play man coverage. They need LBs that can play in both man and zone. Cory lacks the speed to play man coverage.

IMO they need to play more man coverages by their LBs to force the QB to hold the ball a second or two longer. If the QB knows they are playing zone with their LBs it's too easy for him.

Look at their 4 man ILB rotation: Howard, Reed, Young and Kiser all run a 4.6 giving the Rams outstanding LB speed. Add in Fowler (4.6) and Ebukam (4.55) and the entire LB corps is fast. Littleton runs a 4.73 by comparison. It's why Cory gets smoked in man coverage. So he's basically at most a 2 down player if they play the defense as it's meant to be played.

Cory is a good player but he's not a scheme fit IMO.

This is an interesting opinion. It got me thinking after my initial gut said I totally disagree. Without going to Youtube, to find examples of your assertion by watching hours of tape, I went to Pro Football Reference to compare some of his stats against other LB's in the NFC West. I see in comparison to Bobby Wagner and Fred Warner, LIttleton got targeted about the same as the other two and had a completion percentage of 72, with Wagner at 75% and Warner at 64%. The only problem being this Stat doesn't separate Zone from Man coverage. It might be fair to assume that all 3 LB's, from different teams and different schemes play a similar balance of Man & Zone coverage, so the Stats should be a fair comparison. In addition to this, LIttleton, over the past 2 seasons has 18 pass break-ups, 6 Int's, and and had PFF's 3rd highest coverage rating 90.6 in the league. And, to highlight, this past season he had 9 pass break-ups which lead the team. I would think he was making some of those plays in Man coverage as opposed to all in Zone? I certainly would not want the Rams making a an offer to Littleton in excess of 10-Mil per season if he was as poor in coverage as you say. Are there any specific games that you can direct me to where I can review his performance?

 

[ReekofRams]

As they are for most backers.