The Los Angeles Rams sustained injuries to Taylor Rapp and Jordan Fuller entering the playoffs, which led them to call a familiar face: Eric Weddle. Weddle was vital in the Rams’ victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC title game and following his impressive performance, Sean McVay said he isn’t shocked to see the veteran safety having success again.
“It’s outstanding. I’m not surprised. It’s just one of those deals that, for him to be able to pull this off and what he’s done, the juice, the energy, the leadership that he’s brought over the last couple weeks has been palpable. I’ve loved having him around. Love Eric Weddle,” McVay said. “I know teammates love him. What he’s done, playing as many snaps as he has the last couple weeks, it’s incredible. It’s remarkable. But if there was anybody that was going to be able to do it would be him. His knowledge of the game, his instincts, his natural toughness, his feel, all those things were on display yesterday. He would be the first to tell you, there’s a couple things that we can clean up, but I thought he played a great game. I thought the second-and-one tackle that he had that got him to third-and-two was one of the biggest plays of the game. Then we end up getting to stop on third down and then they tried to get us to jump offsides on fourth down. But that play on second-and-one, if you just watch the way that he was able to, have the concept recognition, trigger in the backfield and get it for a minus one, it was some great stuff. He’s been awesome. It’s a great story. It is a great story. It’s almost like some movie stuff that you would write, but he’s really doing it in real life.”
In the divisional-round matchup with the Green Bay Packers, Weddle logged 81% of the defensive snaps for the Rams after playing on only 34% of the snaps in the wild-card showdown with the Arizona Cardinals. Despite being retired for almost two full years, Weddle played 100% of the snaps for Los Angels in Sunday’s win over San Francisco to advance to the Super Bowl.
Besides the admirable feat of playing every defensive snap, Weddle led the Rams in tackles with nine, proving that he has a little gas left in the tank. While not being the most athletically gifted safety, Weddle is still one of the smartest to play the game.
It has been invaluable to have Weddle on the backend of the defense in the postseason thus far. Aside from his leadership on the field, the six-time Pro Bowler has also given the Rams another vocal leader on the defense.
When Weddle was with the Rams in 2019 (his lone season with the team), Los Angeles fell short of making the playoffs. Just weeks after spending his time playing pickup basketball to stay in shape, Weddle is now just one win away from adding another accomplishment to his resume: a Super Bowl.
