What's the deeeeaaaaaal with Joyner??

[Ram65]

It's only four games. First game he played well IIRC. Cardinals didn't score so he couldn't have been too bad in game 2. Just watched the Chargers game. He had a couple of poor plays. The TD where he was late. He slowed down Ekelar but let him go by on a open field big run. He was playing deep by himself which is not easy to come up on a RB in the open field. He did push Allen out of the endzone late on an attempted catch.I would have to rewatch the Viking game that had a less than 100 % Peters and no Talib.

I don 't think it's the contract. Joyner has always been a fiery player. I've seen him many times verbally getting the defense going. Lets see what he does the rest of the way.

 

[hotanez]

I'm pretty sure I remember hearing the Rams made him a deal and couldn't come to terms so they tagged him. It's not often they tag a player without giving some sort of contract offer. They did the same thing with Trumane Johnson. Hopefully he wants to win and understands he's not going to get paid like a CB. lol.

I never heard they offered him a contract. All I read was that they had talked with his agent.

 

[Jacobarch]

I never heard they offered him a contract. All I read was that they had talked with his agent.

I'm going to assume they did. I wouldn't consider it good business to not offer a player that balled out last season a contract going into his last year. Joyner like a lot of players probably wanted more than he's worth.

 

[Merlin]

For the past four Ram games the Chat Room has seen a large amount of :rant:comments on Lamarcus Joyner play. I know there are just a few of us that use the ROD's great chat room .....but LJ's poor play has not escaped us!

I try to keep my negative short comments down as much as possible but it hard for me to lay off LJ perfromance. I have been a BIG fan of his, back to his early days @ FSU I can not explain this.

Nice post Boni.

Honestly our secondary at large has enormous amounts of things to correct, across the board. Safety included. To what extent our coaching can make corrections will determine how far this team can go this year, too. So we'll see. And hopefully the pass rush will improve on the edges, as that will help the secondary a bit as well.

 

[Ram65]

I never heard they offered him a contract. All I read was that they had talked with his agent.

It was reported they couldn't come to a long term agreement. No mention of numbers on a long term deal. No speculation either. Just never seemed like a long term deal was ever a reality.

 

[CGI_Ram]

I suspect in Demoff’s cap projection model the plan was to put Joyner on the tag for this season because he’s a very good player and we could afford to pay it... for this season.

...with the plan all along unlikely we can afford to retain him next season if we can work out something w/Peters or Suh.

In other words, I think he’s on his last season simply because we have other players also needing deals with safety a little easier to fill should we have to part ways with Joyner.

 

[BC Ramfan]

Not angry, sad. He sees this train rolling and it's fun and exciting. He can be pretty certain that he is not in the long term plans. It would be depressing. He said it himself; I'd play this game for free. He wants to be with the Rams. He just saw them dump Quinn and Ogletree. He is realizing that this isn't the same game that he played in college or high school.

He certainly CAN be a Ram if he wants. Team-friendly contract, and done.
Doesn't have to be zero (free).
If he wants big money (especially after this year) then yeah, gone I guess.
BC

 

[kurtfaulk]

If he said he'd play for free, then taking fewer dollars to stay shouldn't be a problem, right?

he was acting when he said that. he was hamming it up.

.

 

[RamFan503]

I love the way Joyner plays and I think we will see him step up as the season goes on. He, Coleman, and Barron feed off each other too so I’m thinking that will play out. I think he showed up more before because our outside cornerback play made it so that he made a lot of the stops they couldn’t.

 

[Ram65]

Very interesting.

Wade says on the TD against the Chargers that the Rams were in a 3 deep zone with Joyner in the middle and still almost made the play. Made a PFF remark. Starts just after 5 Minute mark.


https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OyKAQVXVrOKb

 

[dang]

I love me some Joyner but market rate for a good (not great) FS is what....probably $2.5M/year???

 

[So Ram]

He isn't feeling the love. He is in the J. Brown boat. He sees the new faces and then he sees Gurley and Havenstein, and especially Donald, getting locked up long term, but not him. He seems like an emotional guy. I'd better it is bothering him.

It sucks for him being a safety. That is one position that doesn't get much love in this league. Even the top guys are replaceable.

Poor Earl Thomas!! Joyner is not even in his class.

 

[BonifayRam]

The Worst Contract on Every NFL Roster
Los Angeles Rams: FS LaMarcus Joyner
BY Maurice Moton November 9, 2018
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2804231-the-worst-contract-on-every-nfl-roster#slide18

1. 
   
   • Contract: 1 year, $11.3 million
     
     The Los Angeles Rams made some aggressive roster moves during the offseason, such as signing defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh to a one-year, $14 million deal and acquiring wideout Brandin Cooks and cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib via trade.
     
     All of those players have made a decent impact with the exception of Talib, who's been sidelined since September after undergoing ankle surgery.
     
     But free safety LaMarcus Joyner, who signed a one-year, $11.3 million deal under the franchise tag, hasn't been able to produce. He's yet to log an interception, and he broke up his first pass of the season in Week 9.
     
     Considering that minimal impact, Joyner hasn't been worth his price tag. His three interceptions and nine pass breakups in 2017 showed potential, but the fifth-year pro hasn't built upon that strong campaign.

 

[Ram65]

Joyner missed some tackles against the Saints and had Kamara get position for the TD. Not a good week but, Kamara is a handful to cover out of the backfield.

Wade could be asking too much from him as the lone deep safety in pass coverage. Most times it's not his fault no one can cover the entire width of the field. Starting to think his size is a problem with tackling one on one. When he is coming in for an assist he brings the wood. He has bounced off some tackle attempts.

 

[BonifayRam]

Could Los Angeles Rams S Lamarcus Joyner be on the move in 2019?
By Sosa Kremenjas

https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2018/12/5/18127182/2018-los-angeles-rams-nfl-lamarcus-joyner-fsu

Is there potential for Joyner to once again return with the Rams, or is his career in horns all but over?

When the Rams selected the diminutive yet powerful Lamarcus Joyner. In college, Joyner had experience both as a safety and cornerback, which is part of the reason he was such a high selection. Not only that, but even with his small stature standing only 5’8”, Joyner played like the biggest and most physical guy on the field.

Fast forward five years and Joyner has spent his entire NFL career with the Rams. Originally, Joyner started his career at nickel CB and spent three years there until Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips came to town and decided to switch him to free safety. Initially, the move proved to be pure brilliance as Joyner was a star in 2017. He was so good that the Rams knew they couldn’t afford to let a young and ascending player walk after proving his worth in a contract year. Unfortunately, they couldn’t work out a long-term extension and Joyner was franchise tagged.

Now, about 3⁄4 of the way through 2018, Joyner hasn’t shown the same capabilities as he did the year prior. For example, Joyner was rated a top-two safety on Pro Football Focus’ rankings all of last year. Now? He’s currently at a 70.9 grade, which would place him as their 35th ranked safety.

So that begs the question, what’s wrong?

I’m not entirely sure there’s even an answer. Joyner has regressed in a big way this season and some of that probably has to do with the duties the single-high free safety is responsible for in Phillips’ scheme. The Rams primarily run a cover-1/cover-3 scheme meaning the boundary cornerbacks will operate on an island (themselves) and there will be one-deep safety that needs to have the speed, range, and football intelligence to be able to cover the entire backend on his own. Typically they do this because Joyner does have good range and SS John Johnson III is used to cover tight ends (not always, but mostly).

In 2017, the Rams generally did the same thing, but they did also allow Joyner to kick down and cover slot receivers and tight ends in man-to-man coverage occasionally, and the results were great. 2018 hasn’t brought forth the same responsibilities though. Joyner has struggled with most of his game this year. The two main areas I think he’s struggled most with is reading the field/QB as he routinely can get moved in the wrong direction, and taking bad angles on tacklers in the open field.

Well, Joyner is once again slated to hit the free agent market upon conclusion of the year. Where that situation becomes interesting is that the safety market absolutely tanked last year in free agency. Many guys didn’t receive the offers they expected, evidenced by Tyrann Mathieu settling for a 1-year $7m deal from the Houston Texans and Tre Boston signing a 1-year $1.5m deal.

On the franchise tag, Joyner made $11.2m this year. That’s an astronomical amount when compared to other safety contracts that were long-term:

Earl Thomas signed a 5-year deal in 2014 as one of the best safeties in the league. He was making 10M APY and had 14,25M guaranteed over the life of the entire contract.

Joyner got 11.3M all guaranteed just this season. That's wild. https://t.co/XUZ4JHQq3o
— Sosa (@QBsMVP) December 5, 2018

Currently, it’s unknown whether the Rams have the intentions to re-sign Joyner. For a fair price they might want to, but his play this year suggests that he isn’t worth the long-term contract (at this point in time) that many (including myself) were clamoring for just a few months prior. Lastly, the Rams have shown a propensity for letting quality players in their secondary walk. The list includes Rodney McLeod, T.J. McDonald, Janoris Jenkins, and Trumaine Johnson.

Should the Rams re-sign Joyner?

 

[dang]

Should the Rams re-sign Joyner?

[/QUOTE]
Sadly - NO. He has not shown the coverage or tackling skills this year worthy of a long term contract. I am not sure why he is far less aggressive this year compared to last year but either his skills have diminished or he is not able to adapt to the defensive schemes. Either way - I believe a solid veteran FS can be brought in for $3 - 4 million/year (see Tre Boston) . Earl Thomas will be more expensive but if he's willing to join the Rams train for his final contract and take $5 - 6 million/year - perhaps signing him for 3 years would be a nice add.

 

[Mojo Ram]

I remember watching film of Joyner in college and he played bigger than he is. That continued for the most part as a Ram but this year he's playing as small as he is IMO.

 

[poLARizing]

https://collegefootballnews.com/2018/07/top-30-safeties-preview-2018/2

Maybe Lukas Denis could fall to the end of Rnd 1 to team up with his old buddy John Johnson-III?

 

[Merlin]

Rams dodged a huge bullet in not signing him. So thankful that didn't get done!

He was always going to leave in FA though, even if he played well. I think once things went the tag route that was decided. And he did us a huge favor.

Joyner will go back to being a nickel corner next season IMO. It's what he's good at. Unfortunately those guys aren't too hard to find in any given draft and so he'll see a much lower payday than what the Rams undoubtedly offered him last year.

 

[Ellard80]

I enjoyed (not really) in the Lions game when he reached up and pulled the receiver down by tugging on his arm while the ball was in the air..blatant...

Then was like..