The Los Angeles Rams have made some stellar additions to their roster this offseason, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Needless to say, no one is more excited about the moves than defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
Phillips played an integral role in the Rams’ turnaround last season. However, he feels Los Angeles is much more ahead of the curve then they were the first time around, via the Rams’ official website:
“They say I’m old, but it doesn’t get old to me, I’m looking forward to it” Phillips said. “It’s good to be outside with them and work with them. We’ve been in the classroom — went in the classroom for two weeks. So now we go classroom and then step out on the field. You can’t run any routes or anything against them, but having most of them here last year, they are familiar with what we played. We can go [through our] walk-thru things and they have some recall from last year, so I think that helps. We’re a lot further ahead than we were last year at this time.”
There is plenty of reason for Phillips’ optimism this season. The Rams already had one of the most opportunistic defenses in the league last year. Their production should undoubtedly increase with the addition of defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and a couple of All-Pro cornerbacks in Marcus Peters and Aqib Talib.
Furthermore, the front office also did a solid job of keeping safety Lamarcus Joyner around for next season as well. Although their discussions with defensive tackle Aaron Donald are still ongoing, general manager Les Snead has indicated that he will be well taken care of in the near future. That said, Phillips will still have his work cut out for him with all the young pieces they added on the edge and to their linebacker corps through the 2018 NFL Draft.
