The Rams Have the Talent. Myles Garrett Says It Means Nothing Until They Put It on Film

Sean McVay called this a player-led team. Trent McDuffie explained what that means. Now a rebuilt Rams defense gets its first chance to prove that talent, accountability, and trust can become collective impact.

By Jason Burrell | South Bay Black Journal

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams have spent an offseason assembling the kind of roster that makes expectations difficult to avoid.

Myles Garrett is here. Trent McDuffie is here. Aaron Donald is back, although Sean McVay announced Tuesday that Donald will not play Thursday against San Francisco in Australia. Around them is a defensive front that helped the Rams reach last season’s NFC Championship Game without Donald.

On paper, there is plenty to believe in.

Garrett isn’t interested in paper.

“We have a hell of an opportunity, but it means nothing until we put it on film,” Garrett said Tuesday after practice.

That may be the most appropriate way to describe where the Rams stand before their first game that counts.

The question is no longer how much talent Los Angeles has accumulated.

It’s what all that talent can become together.

McVay offered a glimpse into that process before practice when he described the Rams as a “player-led team,” adding that it is “the best kind of team.”

McDuffie, who spent his first four NFL seasons inside Kansas City’s championship culture, provided a definition afterward.

For McDuffie, three qualities stand out: accountability, veterans willing to help younger players, and the absence of egos.

When players make mistakes, he said, they acknowledge them, correct them and move forward. More revealing was his description of veterans sharing information with younger teammates.

In some NFL locker rooms, McDuffie explained, competition for jobs can make players reluctant to help someone who might eventually take their place. He hasn’t experienced that with the Rams.

“Everybody wants to see everybody succeed,” McDuffie said.

That willingness to share knowledge is already showing up along the defensive front.

Garrett said teammates have been picking his brain and discussing strategy, chemistry and different pass-rush situations with him.

“They’re picking my brain,” Garrett said. “We’re talking strategy, talking chemistry, what I’m thinking on different rushes and just how we can improve each other and get the best of each other.”

That may matter as much as any individual statistic Thursday.

Impact Beyond the Sack

Garrett arrives in Los Angeles after recording an NFL-record 23 sacks last season, but there is a reason his impact against San Francisco shouldn’t be evaluated solely by how many times he puts Brock Purdy on the ground.

Garrett has seen this offense before.

When Cleveland defeated San Francisco 19-17 in 2023, the Browns pressured Purdy on 45.2 percent of his dropbacks. Garrett didn’t record a sack, but he generated four pressures while Cleveland sacked Purdy three times and limited the 49ers to 215 total yards and 17 points.

The Rams’ defense produced 47 regular-season sacks last year without Donald. Yet across two meetings with San Francisco, Los Angeles managed just one.

Garrett changes that equation.

So might McDuffie.

There is an old football relationship between pass rush and coverage: the front helps the back, and the back helps the front.

McDuffie explained it from a defensive back’s perspective Tuesday. Better coverage forces a receiver to work longer to uncover, which makes the quarterback hold the football and gives the defensive line additional time to arrive. Pressure does the opposite: it forces the quarterback to release the ball sooner, potentially creating opportunities for the secondary.

Sacks and interceptions are different statistics.

They can be products of the same defensive ecosystem.

And ultimately, McDuffie said, neither is the real objective.

“We’re trying to get that ball back to number nine.”

Number nine is Matthew Stafford.

Donald Can Wait

That collective approach helps explain why McVay sounded comfortable announcing that Donald will remain home while the Rams travel to Australia.

Donald has been away from NFL football for two seasons. McVay said the future Hall of Famer has attacked his return correctly but still needs time sharpening the details that made him extraordinary: taking on double teams, hand placement, eye progression, rush transitions and fitting into the Rams’ current scheme.

McVay doesn’t want Donald’s competitiveness to outrun the process.

“It’s a good thing to have to pull him back,” McVay said.

More importantly, McVay expressed confidence in the players who will be there.

Kobie Turner. Braden Fiske. Poona Ford. Tyler Davis. Ty Hamilton.

And Garrett.

McVay said good defensive lines require five or six players capable of handling meaningful snaps, praising the “emergence and ascension” of the group that developed while Donald was away.

Donald will eventually join them.

But Thursday isn’t about what the Rams might become when he does.

It is about what they already are.

Garrett understands the expectations surrounding a defense with this many accomplished players. He also understands reputations won’t help much once the football is snapped.

Asked about entering a season with perhaps greater expectations than any he has experienced during his NFL career, Garrett returned to something considerably simpler.

“You’ve got to go out there and be the same person you’ve always been,” Garrett said. “If you give your best, you should have nothing to hang your head about.”

There will be opportunities for Garrett to chase another Defensive Player of the Year award. He made no secret Tuesday about the larger individual and team goals in front of him.

But his first answer when asked what comes next was only two words:

“Super Bowl.”

Getting there will require more than stars.

It will require Turner and Fiske capitalizing when protections lean toward Garrett. It will require McDuffie and the secondary buying the pass rush another fraction of a second. It will require veterans helping young players even when those players are competing for opportunities. It will require the accountability McDuffie described and the player leadership McVay believes is developing.

The Rams have spent months assembling the pieces.

Thursday begins the part that matters.