Aaron Donald's retirement underlined the entire offseason for the Los Angeles Rams, forcing them to invest resources into areas they desperately needed to address. However, replacing Donald is no small feat, as his impact was felt everywhere. Donald was the entire personnel and let the Rams get away with lackluster edge rushers and safety play, as his presence altered the math. His presence dominated every facet of the opponent's game plans, and he in turn was the lynchpin of the Rams' defensive efforts.
Without Donald blowing up blockers routinely, can the Rams' defense continue its strong efforts in the run game? Pro Football Focus divided each team's defense into four clusters based on the 2023 season, and the Rams fell into cluster 3, with a strong run defense but average overall performance due to their lackluster secondary.
"The Rams' defense performed well in 2023, ranking ninth with a 69.1 PFF grade. Their coverage unit struggled, however, en route to a 58.2 grade to rank 31st."
The Rams recognized how poorly they played last season. Los Angeles invested heavily in free agency into their secondary to boost their poor performance with proven veterans instead of relying on youth.
However, can the Rams' defense stay strong against the run without Donald? I've spoken about this in previous articles, but the Rams' defensive line is a chaotic group of overlapped players skill-wise, and I'm not sure what the vision is there.
Donald changed the math and let the Rams get away with Kobie Turner as a 1T (not his best position) because Donald occupied at least three blockers on seemingly every play. He kept linebackers clean and blew up plays by himself with regularity.
With an undersized group of starters in Kobie Turner & Braden Fiske and an unproven group behind them, I think this position is the one I'm most hesitant about projecting heading into the season. With how little value the Rams place on linebackers, call me concerned about how they can keep their run defense strong without Donald.