Blake Countess officially won’t be back with the Los Angeles Rams in 2019. The Eagles have claimed the safety off waivers, according to a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
The Rams waived him Friday after he reportedly declined to take a pay cut. He had been set to make a non-guaranteed $2 million in 2019 under his restricted free agent tender. The Rams apparently thought that was too high of a price to pay for a reserve safety who plays sparingly, but Countess didn’t budge.
At the time, Rapoport had said the “door [was] open” for Countess to return if he cleared waivers, but evidently he did not. Overall, it won’t be too huge of a loss for the Rams.
Les Snead selected two safeties in the draft, Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott, which made Countess even more expendable. Countess played just 58 defensive snaps last season, but he had a big role on special teams.
Scott is a special teams standout who was drafted specifically for that purpose, so he can likely take over Countess’ role. Countess originally signed with the Eagles as an undrafted free agent back in 2016, but didn’t make the team. The Michigan product then latched on with the Rams and spent the past three seasons with them.
