When you have Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey on the same defense, good things are going to happen. And through five weeks, good things have been happening to the Rams defense in 2020.
Obviously, there are nine other players on the field with them, but having a unit built around two All-Pros at premier positions gives the Rams a lot of flexibility and potential defensively. After five games, the Rams rank third in points allowed, fourth in yards, second in passing yards, and second in touchdown passes given up.
By just about every metric, the Rams boast an elite defense and Pro Football Focus has taken notice. PFF’s Anthony Treash ranked every NFL defense based on expected points added (EPA), which measures a play’s impact on the score of the game.
With no opinion factored in, this is a statistical ranking of every defense. And on the list, the Rams checked in at No. 4.
Donald has been in his same dominant form in 2020 by generating 33 pressures in his five games (eight more than any player at the position) and winning on 26% of his pass-rush reps (4 percentage points higher than second). Simply put, Donald is still a game-wrecker, and when you pair that with a strong secondary like they have, it makes life difficult for the opposition’s passing attack. The Rams have allowed -0.15 EPA per pass play, which is significantly higher than second at -0.09 and the league average at 0.12. The play of outside corners Jalen Ramsey and Darious Williams has played a big role in that, as they are one of two tandems that rank in the top-15 at the alignment in coverage grade.
The stars of the defense thus far have been Donald, Ramsey and Williams, as PFF mentioned. But they’re not the only ones playing well this season. Jordan Fuller has been a stud when healthy despite being a sixth-round rookie. John Johnson has picked up right where he left off before getting hurt last year, while Michael Brockers continues to be a good run defender.
Where the Rams need to improve is at inside linebacker and outside linebacker. Micah Kiser showed flashes of being a good starter by winning Defensive Player of the Week in Week 2, but Leonard Floyd, Samson Ebukam and the other linebackers have to make more of an impact than they have.
