Brandon Thorn ranks Rams defensive line 25th heading into 2024.

The defensive line for the Los Angeles Rams will look substantially different heading into the 2024 season. Of course, the reason for that is the absence of defensive end Aaron Donald following his retirement.

While the Rams have some potential with players like Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske, and others, this is still a very unproven group. Turner had success as a rookie and should be able to handle his own, but we still haven’t seen him without Donald taking a lot of the attention.

Throughout the history of the Rams franchise, they’ve seemingly always been very good on the defensive line. In the 60s and 70s there was obviously the Fearsome Foursome groups. Moving ahead to the mid-2010s there was a period in which the Rams had four first round picks along their defensive line. This is a team that’s always been good on that side of the ball. It almost seems strange that it’s the offensive line that should dominate games in 2024.

Brandon Thorn of Trench Warfare and Establish The Run ranked the defensive lines in the NFL. Coming in at number 25 and in the “Below-Average Pass-Rushing Defensive Lines” tier was the Rams. Said Thorn,

“The Rams’ front four is one of the youngest on this list, so naturally the ceiling is higher than this ranking, but there is substantial uncertainty as to what they will be in 2024 considering two rookies in Jared Verse and Braden Fiske will be counted on to provide significant production. Kobie Turner had a good rookie season with 48 pressures and nine sacks (four high-quality sacks) while fellow rookie Byron Young had a solid year himself with 50 pressures and eight sacks (zero high-quality sacks). The Rams’ front should improve and climb the rankings as the year goes on, but with essentially no proven depth, avoiding injury will be an important factor for that to happen.”

While a ranking of 25 seems low, the analysis itself is more than fair. At the end of the day this is a very young group that needs to prove itself. If Turner takes that next step and then both Fiske and Verse make immediate impacts, this is a group that could finish the season in the 14-18 range. However, they aren’t there yet.

The Rams did finish in the bottom-10, but it is worth noting that Thorn ranked them higher than team like the Detroit Lions at 26, New Orleans Saints at 27, and the Atlanta Falcons at 30. The Rams came in right below the Minnesota Vikings and Baltimore Ravens.

The Athletic’s Larry Holder also recently broke down each defensive line in the NFL. Holder said of the Rams,

“It’s weird not to have Donald as an elite fixture within the pass rush, but there’s been quite the youth movement in Los Angeles. The Rams should feel confident with their 2023 draft haul — third-round picks Kobie Turnerand Byron Young will look to build on solid NFL rookie seasons. You have to wonder if Turner can handle the added attention on the inside this season with Donald off in retirement land. Los Angeles brought in more young reinforcements by spending its first two 2024 draft picks on edge rusher Jared Verse and defensive tackle Braden Fiske, who were teammates at Florida State. You’d expect Verse to be thrown into the fire, but having Michael Hoecht in a rotational role won’t hurt.”

That first point is what is key when it comes to this current Rams defensive line. Again, it’s more than ok to be excited about what this defensive line can be. However, we won’t know what they can be until we see them on he field and how they handle getting off blocks and working together as a unit. Who’s going to be the guy that gets to the quarterback when needed?

These are things that everybody will be paying attention to when they take the field. It’s very possible that they overachieve and end up closer to the middle of the pack. However, we just don’t know what this group will look like without Donald.

Last season with Donald, the Rams ranked 23rd in sacks and quarterback hits. Their pass-rush success rate ranked 17th. The player getting the most of those was Donald. With ‘99’ gone, the Rams will be leaving open 84 pressures, 14 quarterback hits, and a pass-rush win rate of 22.5 percent which was almost 10 percent higher than an other Rams pass rusher. To put it simply, it’s hard to know how the Rams will fill that void. The ‘Aaron Donald effect’ was a very real thing.

That’s not to say that it’s impossible and the Rams will certainly try to create pressure points from different spots which will spread out where pass rush comes from. However, it’s still a challenge and one question that the Rams will have to answer in the fall. Because of that, they may not get the ‘respect’ from analysts, but it’s certainly something they’ll be able to earn in the case that they rise to challenge.