The Los Angeles Rams had to turn to an unexpected source on Thursday Night Football last week. With lineback Troy Reeder out due an injury, head coach Sean McVay turned to undrafted rookie Omar Speights to start in his place.
Speights played his college ball at Oregon State and LSU and went undrafted in 2024 before signing with the Rams.
Prior to the win over the Minnesota Vikings, Speights had been almost exclusively a special teams player. He made it in for a few snaps in Week 4 against the Chicago Bears and recorded one tackle. But this was his first chance at legitimate playing time.
He recorded four tackles in what was a vital victory for the Rams and received some praise from McVay for what he was able to do in certain packages.
“I thought he did a nice job,” McVay said. “He played in our base package, and you could see he was in the right spots. He had a couple of those plays where he is arriving violently at the point of attack. Good recognition of some of the concepts that they were doing, whether that be run or play action. I was pleased with Omar.”
Reeder was placed on IR with his injury, meaning that Speights is likely to see a increase in his role moving forward. And based on how things went against the Vikings, it’s possible that McVay is ready to start steadily giving him more responsibility on the Rams defense.
Speights is still only 23 years old and on an already young defense, it will be harder to hide some rookie mistakes. But this could be an opportunity for the Rams to see what they have in the young linebacker and put him in situations to show that he can be a successful temporary starter.
Sean McVay: too early to tell what Rams will do at deadline
The Rams got off to a poor start this season but have since won two consecutive games to climb back into the playoff picture.
At 3-4, the Rams are just a half game out of first place in the NFC West and now could potentially become buyers ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline.
However, McVay cautioned that it is still too early to tell if that will be the case. If the team does go that route, they could look to acquire some help at inside linebacker.
