The Arizona Cardinals have announced that they have signed former Los Angeles Rams linebacker Matt Longacre, who spent the last four years with the Los Angeles Rams.
Longacre spent two years at Division II school Northwest Missouri State before going undrafted during the 2015 NFL Draft. The Rams signed him later that offseason.
Longacre played 38 games for the Rams, starting a total of 8 games. He had his best season in 2017 where he participated in 35.29% of defensive snaps, a career high. He managed to total 5.5 sacks, 23 combined tackles and 12 quarterback hits.
For Longacre, success seemed to come in inconsistent spurts. He never saw himself with any postseason playing time on the Rams and was cut his first season to join the practice squad. It’s hard to blame him for any shortcomings as the Rams have had a strong crop of linebackers in recent history. Cory Littleton joined the Rams in 2016 and has been one of their best defensive players in that time, along with Mark Barron.
Of course, the Rams have also added former All-Pro linebacker Clay Matthews to the mix. Matthews should be more than able to pick up any slack at the linebacker position. Matthews has a career total of 83.5 sacks and 494 tackles.
Additionally, the Rams used their last pick in the 2019 NFL draft to add Texas Tech linebacker Dakota Allen. Allen had a strong three year college career, although his junior season left something to be desired. His first two seasons were spectacular, totaling a combined four interceptions and 188 combined tackles. Last year his stats dipped somewhat with no interceptions, no sacks, and only 61 combined tackles.
Allen will have to earn his way into some playing time, but having more options will not hurt the Rams. Especially with age likely becoming a factor for an explosive player like Matthews, having a young replacement could be vital for Los Angeles.
Longacre will join a Cardinals team that already has some key linebackers. Haason Reddick, for example, had a great season last year. He put up 80 combined tackles, four sacks, and one interception. However, the Cardinals did not use any of their whopping 11 picks in this year’s draft for linebackers. Hopefully, a role for Longacre will appear during the 2019 NFL season.
