Rams PFF grades: Best and worst performers in loss to Bills

[Psycho_X]

D Line wasn't great particularly second half. Aaron has to be wondering why he came back for this. Saw him getting thrown around some. Offense still functioning at a mostly high level. Dotson not having a great year to this point in a contract year.

Dotson has been less than spectacular in pass pro most of the season against good players. He's always been a road grader in run game and just average in pass pro but has gotten beat really bad a few times this season. Still think he is good just has had a few struggles. AD is clearly not the same player he was but that was expected. I look forward to seeing him when Garrett has to be the focal point of offenses game plans.

I have been rough on Fiske but he is pressuring at a high rate.

I've noticed Fiske getting the pressures, I also notice him getting blown up on run plays. That's been his general M.O. over the years. If he could improve his run defense a little he would be really good.

Any word on Watson? His best game as a Ram. After he went down we struggled. Seems to be a trend given our poor CB depth.

I think Watson is fine. At the time I was wondering if he took a knee/foot to the balls.

Wow, I guess Lake probably should have sat this one out. Corum did look good, but that much better then Kyren?

Lake is what he is, a hyper-intelligent but slow DB. Good offenses are going to try and isolate fast guys on him when able and he will get beat if they get past 5 yards and he's not still in front of them.

 

[InfiniteRam]

Quentin Lake's was paid heavily last season when he was injured to lead the secondary. The "Captain Lake" that we saw before the early last season injury has not returned, a shell of his past.

Can't lead when you simply can not make plays. Lake IS one of the current issues on this Shula-led defense. Shula needs to make serious readjustments on Lake's duties in this defense.

Lake's 2025 & first 5 gms in 2026 responsibilities in this defense needs to be downsized.

Disagree about Lake, who has been excellent in three of the five games. Everyone sucked week 1. He played injured last week and should have sat. Affected his short space quickness.

 

[Twopointtry]

An illustration of the danger of small sample sizes: Early in the season, Coleman Shelton had a terrible pass blocking grade from PFF, but an outstanding run blocking grade. Now that we are 5 games into the season, Shelton's run and pass blocking PFF grades are almost exactly equal to each other.

 

[BonifayRam]

Disagree about Lake, who has been excellent in three of the five games. Everyone sucked week 1. He played injured last week and should have sat. Affected his short space quickness.

We can agree in hindsight that Lake should not have played & been rested.

The elements that may have determined the above appear to be the injury virus, which has been hanging around, infecting 3 of our top safeties in the first five weeks.

The DB who I believe has shown to be the IRONMAN & leader of the Rams secondary, Kam Curl, since he arrived, was injured Week 1 against 9ers, KC was reported to have ongoing ankle soreness. KC continues to fight through this injury. Against Buffalo, he had ankle soreness again. KC has been limited at practice and sat out Friday. KC is now questionable for Sunday.

On Safety Kam Kitchens, since the 9ers gm, all reports on him are about a lingering hamstring injury. KK missed the next 2 games, then returned in Week 4. Injury reports were tracking that same injury.

I have posted several times this early season on Safety Quentin Lake game-day performances....had one reported injury: a hip injury in the Eagles game. He missed several practices before the Bills gm. He’d played every defensive snap in the Rams’ first four games.

4th safety Jaylen McCollough 2026 season playtime has diminished. He played only 3 defensive snaps against the Eagles & only 1 against the Bills in the Rams’ last two games. Thus far this season, he has only gotten 31.1% of the D's snaps. Last season he was getting close to 46%.

CB/Nickle Josh Wallace has increased his defensive snaps this season. Over 62% of the D's snaps & 58% of the ST's snaps. Against the Eagles, JW played all the defensive snaps @ CB. Against the Bills he took all the snaps @ Nickel.

The late Saturday injury report has on Sunday game vs. Arizona, Trent McDuffie (groin) and Kam Curl (ankle) are questionable.

 

[InfiniteRam]

We can agree in hindsight that Lake should not have played & been rested.

The elements that may have determined the above appear to be the injury virus, which has been hanging around, infecting 3 of our top safeties in the first five weeks.

The DB who I believe has shown to be the IRONMAN & leader of the Rams secondary, Kam Curl, since he arrived, was injured Week 1 against 9ers, KC was reported to have ongoing ankle soreness. KC continues to fight through this injury. Against Buffalo, he had ankle soreness again. KC has been limited at practice and sat out Friday. KC is now questionable for Sunday.

On Safety Kam Kitchens, since the 9ers gm, all reports on him are about a lingering hamstring injury. KK missed the next 2 games, then returned in Week 4. Injury reports were tracking that same injury.

I have posted several times this early season on Safety Quentin Lake game-day performances....had one reported injury: a hip injury in the Eagles game. He missed several practices before the Bills gm. He’d played every defensive snap in the Rams’ first four games.

4th safety Jaylen McCollough 2026 season playtime has diminished. He played only 3 defensive snaps against the Eagles & only 1 against the Bills in the Rams’ last two games. Thus far this season, he has only gotten 31.1% of the D's snaps. Last season he was getting close to 46%.

CB/Nickle Josh Wallace has increased his defensive snaps this season. Over 62% of the D's snaps & 58% of the ST's snaps. Against the Eagles, JW played all the defensive snaps @ CB. Against the Bills he took all the snaps @ Nickel.

The late Saturday injury report has on Sunday game vs. Arizona, Trent McDuffie (groin) and Kam Curl (ankle) are questionable.

Thorough stuff, and appreciate the detailed information.

I think, right now, the deep safeties are killing us. The scheme has changed enough to where they may be still trying to figure it out, but they have been huge liabilities.

The CB's (McDuffie, Watson, Wallace) are playing lights out.

 

[BonifayRam]

Thorough stuff, and appreciate the detailed information.

I think, right now, the deep safeties are killing us. The scheme has changed enough to where they may be still trying to figure it out, but they have been huge liabilities.

The CB's (McDuffie, Watson, Wallace) are playing lights out.

Yes, sir, I do try to go deep in the weeds & thorns so I can get the feel of what has happened to what sure looked like the best secondary in the NFL when the season started. I truly believe that the lingering injuries & soreness do add a good amount of bad taste at this time.

Positive: Josh Wallace appears to be trending into the Nickel corner very well & has held up surprisingly well when playing for starting corner Watson. Josh Wallace appears to start opposite CB Watson Sunday due to the injured McDuffie. No idea who will get the Nickel snaps? I hope that CB Cam Lamkin gets the call-up from PS-16 again to plug in at the Nickel over Forbes. If Cam Lampkin is to be a contributor on this Rams team in 2026, It will be at the Nickel.

Negative: SS Jaylen McCollough's 2026 on-field performance has dropped off considerably just when he is needed. He is not a deep safety; far better up close to the LOS like Lake. Shula/Chris Beake & Mike Hunter need to find a deep safety type in this DB unit. Safeties Curl/ Kinchens/ McCollough & Lake are all heavy-leaning strong safeties who do their best work closer to the LOS. Forbes sure has been looked over for snaps???

That deep/free or the better-endowed speed & coverage skills might end up being Josh Wallace. However, he is close to where Lake speed is. Wallace's 40 times @ Michigan were 4.63 / 4.69.

What are your thoughts? Where am I off the mark?

 

[InfiniteRam]

Yes, sir, I do try to go deep in the weeds & thorns so I can get the feel of what has happened to what sure looked like the best secondary in the NFL when the season started. I truly believe that the lingering injuries & soreness do add a good amount of bad taste at this time.

Positive: Josh Wallace appears to be trending into the Nickel corner very well & has held up surprisingly well when playing for starting corner Watson. Josh Wallace appears to start opposite CB Watson Sunday due to the injured McDuffie. No idea who will get the Nickel snaps? I hope that CB Cam Lamkin gets the call-up from PS-16 again to plug in at the Nickel over Forbes. If Cam Lampkin is to be a contributor on this Rams team in 2026, It will be at the Nickel.

Negative: SS Jaylen McCollough's 2026 on-field performance has dropped off considerably just when he is needed. He is not a deep safety; far better up close to the LOS like Lake. Shula/Chris Beake & Mike Hunter need to find a deep safety type in this DB unit. Safeties Curl/ Kinchens/ McCollough & Lake are all heavy-leaning strong safeties who do their best work closer to the LOS. Forbes sure has been looked over for snaps???

That deep/free or the better-endowed speed & coverage skills might end up being Josh Wallace. However, he is close to where Lake speed is. Wallace's 40 times @ Michigan were 4.63 / 4.69.

What are your thoughts? Where am I off the mark?

I'm not sure what has happened to Kinchens. He was supposed to have ball-hawk capabilities and flashed at times, but looks completely behind on everything over the top this year. I hope its just settling into the new scheme, and an affect of us playing more M2M, but I am baffled.

If the safeties were even playing slightly above average football in coverage, it would be virtually impossible to pass against us.

 

[TexasRam]

• LB Nate Landman: 79.0 --- Has to be replaced when running QBs are in play.
• DT Aaron Donald: 49.3--- I expect him to breakout this week. If not, he may have lost more then we thought.
• OLB Byron Young: 45.6-- Ouch. Disappeared again.
• S Kam Kinchens: 42.0--- Massive liability right now.
• OLB Wesley Bailey: 40.2--- Time to go back to the practice squad. NFL O-lineman starters are not preseason starters are they.
• S Kam Curl: 39.4--- Down game but still has played well overall.
• DT Kobie Turner: 34.7--- Didn't watch his game. Not sure what happened here.
• DB Quentin Lake: 28.4--- Never play him deep. Send him on Blitz.

Smart teams are filing away our weaknesses as shown on film. Some of these players will be targeted.
Shula is doing little to improve our defense from a schematic angle.

 

[Ramstien]

Shula and Vetrone have not been up to the task this season, if improvement is not forthcoming, they may be packing their bags.

 

[muggmeister]

It would be fucking nice if we could hear Turner or Fiske's names called for making a play once in awhile. Kobie's 2nd contract with Rams is dwindling more and more with each game. Can't see paying him $25m or so, same with Fiske. And I don't want to hear a fucking word about no Myles Garrett, he wasn't here the last 3 years and they performed without him. Time to step the fuck up and quit waiting on AD or BY to make all the plays along the line.

 

[DeaconJones]

I hope that CB Cam Lamkin gets the call-up from PS-16 again to plug in at the Nickel over Forbes.

Your wish has been granted. I presume McDuffie's game status will determine whether he makes it to the game day roster.

 

[den-the-coach]

It would be fucking nice if we could hear Turner or Fiske's names called for making a play once in awhile. Kobie's 2nd contract with Rams is dwindling more and more with each game. Can't see paying him $25m or so, same with Fiske. And I don't want to hear a fucking word about no Myles Garrett, he wasn't here the last 3 years and they performed without him. Time to step the fuck up and quit waiting on AD or BY to make all the plays along the line.

Fiske is not a great tackler IMHO. Seems to miss quite a few tackles when given the opportunity. Just from watching the games. As to Turner, he has been close and made some plays, but they needed to keep Allen contained and that was more on Josaiah Stewart and with the exception of the first plays, he did not get that done IMHO.

 

[BonifayRam]

Your wish has been granted. I presume McDuffie's game status will determine whether he makes it to the game day roster.

Good. I know Cam Lamkin is a very slim-framed corner, maybe around 5'10 1/2"/174 lbs, but I have observed his play in 3 pre-seasons & feel strongly he can contribute to this future Rams team. Currently, both starting corners are working through injuries; Watson's shoulder injury is long-term.

Rams 3rd corner CB Josh Wallace's contract with the Rams ends this season; however, he is an RFA and is positively playing himself into a nice tendered size contract in 2027. I expect him to be a Ram in 27.

This season is at the 1/3 point....Late last season, starter Emmanuel Forbes has only seen 21% of the defensive snaps. With only 4 CB's on our MR53. EF is a UFA when the season ends. I do not see him being a Ram in 27. Thus, the reason for my strong interest in PS-16 Cam Lampkin.

In addition, I found PS-16 CB Nyzier Fourqurean pre-season effort to be encouraging. NF talent looks close to that of a future possible backup to Watson spot. NF's 6-1 / 190lb frame, physical press coverage, and strong agility testing mimic Watson's style of play. NF also demonstrated a strong 4.11 shuttle time, 16 bench press reps, and 6.84 three-cone. Thus, he bears watching.