There weren’t a whole lot of bright spots for the Rams this season as the defending champs limped to a 5-12 record. The offense was one of the worst in the NFL, ranking 27th in points scored and last in total yards.
If there were two positives from the season, however, it was Jalen Ramsey and Bobby Wagner. Ramsey earned a higher grade from Pro Football Focus this season than he did last year when he was a first-team All-Pro, which debunks the narrative of him having a “down year,” as some have said.
Wagner wasn’t named a Pro Bowler but he was the top-graded linebacker in football and had one of his best seasons ever with 140 tackles, six sacks, two interceptions and 10 tackles for a loss.
PFF selected both players to its All-Pro team, making them first-team selections at linebacker and flex-D. Here’s what was written about Wagner’s season.
Wagner playing as well as he did this season in his first year with a new team would be remarkable enough, but doing so given the injury disaster in Los Angeles and still looking like the best linebacker in the game is truly outstanding. Wagner has a 77.9-plus PFF grade in every facet of play.
And this is what PFF wrote about Ramsey as the first-team flex defender.
Ramsey is, by far, the league’s best cornerback in run support and the type of passing plays that teams use as an extension of the run game. His 91.8 PFF run defense grade is the best in the league, and he registered 27 defensive stops as well as two forced fumbles this season. Ramsey showed what he can do in coverage in the final week of the regular season against Seattle, picking off Geno Smith twice.
Neither player was selected to the Pro Bowl, but they should have a shot at being AP All-Pros, which is much less of a popularity contest than the Pro Bowl voting is.
