Corey Littleton a Priority per Steve Wyche

[Corbin]

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?

Same here, I know I’ve seen him break passes up in man before. 2 plays come to mind off the bat but doesn’t mean he’s as poor as is suggested or better than what we are thinking

Honestly, I’ve never looked as much specifically as what coverage he’s in. I’m usually looking at the front end of the defense and the opposing o-line so I can scream at the top of my lungs, ” their holding Donald again for the 10th fucking time on this drive you blind bastards!!”

ps @oldnotdead speed isn’t everything Al Davis Jr! Anticipation, football study, and instincts make up for seed. Especially on defense.

 

[dang]

The Rams have a lot of decisions and tough choices to make this offseason. IMO solidifying the OL is #1 priority. So resigning Whit for one more year while Noteboom recovers and any other new OL pieces gel HAS to happen. It’s not just his play (which has regressed a little bit the last 2 years) but it’s his leadership on the OL and the entire team that is needed. I say make a deal that pays Whit at a reasonable salary for one more year but also commits to bringing him in on a decent coaching contract the following year. There are no cap restrictions for coaching so they could overpay him a bit in order to make his one year player contract palatable. Get creative FO and lock Whit up for one more year.

 

[Merlin]

I say make a deal that pays Whit at a reasonable salary for one more year but also commits to bringing him in on a decent coaching contract the following year.

How about hire Whit as "Asst OL Coach." Make sure the contract is guaranteed. Then sign him for league minimum to play LT for us.

 

[Merlin]

In terms of replacing Littleton...

Looking at this draft there are a metric ass ton of box safeties. In fact for teams seeking FS types I would guess FA (which is likely to be loaded at FS) will be preferred to fill those needs due to that.

So for teams like the Rams who are looking for a rangy nickelbacker there's so many options. Also there are WILL type options as well to supplement that group where you just go get one midrounds and coach him up. Rams could go WILL type with a guy like Strnad or Brown mid to late rounds, or a big aggressive box safety like Chinn or Dorn and just coach them up.

And that's not even considering the possibility of a three down type like Kenneth Murray dropping to them due to all these wideouts, OT, edge and DL options. Or the Rams electing to go after another size/speed DB addition to the secondary who is a potential beast of an open field tackler in Dugger.

Thankfully we'll find out soon but I'm gonna be relieved if and when Littleton gets his big payday somewhere else.

 

[jrry32]

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.

Cory doesn't get smoked in man coverage and definitely isn't a two-down player. He's one of the best LBs in the NFL in coverage. His weakness is against the run. He's only average in that department. Cory definitely doesn't lack the speed to play M2M, and it's completely wrong to claim that he's bad at it.


Littleton can't handle guys like Kamara or McCaffrey, but there aren't many LBs in the NFL who can (you can count the number on one hand). But Littleton isn't a pure zone guy and is actually quite good in coverage against more typical HBs and against most TEs. He's a little grabby, but he does it at the right points to get away with it.

The problem with Littleton is that he's an average run defender who makes more of an impact cleaning plans up past the LOS in the running game. He's a top 10 LB in the NFL in coverage. But if I'm going to pay you big time money, you need to be an impact player. Cory is a good ILB, but he's not an impact player. I can't justify paying him $13 million to $16 million per year.