As the LA Rams pack up the 2024 season, gleaning over actions taken to decipher what worked and didn't work, the team must confront the annual decision tree of who should be extended and who should be shown the door. It's nothing new, and by now GM Les Snead has tweaked the team's front office into a well-oiled machine that can and will handle the workload with no hiccups.
But to the fans, the sweet purring of the Rams front office may not be as reassuring as hoped for. After all, until the team has filled the 90-man Rams roster for the 2025 NFL season, there will be a certain level of uncertainty in regard to what the team has planned for the upcoming year. And as we have seen in the past, the team has never been above reaching out and signing former veterans to help out as younger players try to get acclimated to life in the NFL and as players for the Rams.
But like soda that has been left in a glass too long, or bread that has not been kept in a sealed air-tight bag, some players who have been around grow stale. Either they never realize their expected potential, their compensation exceeds their contribution, or both. In any case, the time comes for the team and the player to toss a white flag and part ways. Who falls into that 'bust,' category for the LA Rams after the 2024 NFL season? We have three players who seem to fit the bill:
(3) - Joe Noteboom
Once considered the heir apparent to veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth, veteran offensive tackle Joe Noteboom played well enough to lure a huge payday out of the Rams. Then after the ink was still wet, he proved once again that early signs of lack of durability were not a fluke. The team intended to promote Noteboom to a starting left tackle in 2022, and contracted compensation to reflect his promotion into that prestigious role.
Joe Noteboom faded into a more appropriate swing tackle role for the Rams in 2022, a role he maintained through 2024. In 2022, he started six games. In 2023, he started eight games. And in 2024, he started just four games. His call to action typically came at the injury to a teammate. But in 2024, that pattern developed a hiccup as Noteboom was injured as he filled in for suspended teammate Alaric Jackson in Week 1. But an injury to Noteboom forced the team to promote A.J. Arcuri into a starting role for Week 2.
The Rams cannot pay millions to a swing tackle who runs the risk of injury with every appearance. I have no doubt that in the right system, Noteboom could be a serviceable starting offensive lineman. But his lack of durability with the Rams has created more challenges than solutions.
(2) - ILB Troy Reeder
It's tough to blame veteran ILB Troy Reeder for starting at the inside linebacker position for the Rams defense for varying spans of time over his five seasons with the LA Rams defense. After all, every player on the roster has an expectation to compete for playing time at the utmost of their ability. After the smoke and dust of fierce competition clears, it's up to the Rams coaching staff to rank their collective scorecards and flesh out who starts, who serves in a backup role, and who has to find other productive roles with the team to secure a roster spot.
Somehow, it seems that Reeder on the roster leads to Reeder starting, and that just shouldn't be.
Could it be that the challenge lies in the basic design of the Rams offense? After all, the Rams are not exactly committed to the run, and it's a running offense that seems to bewilder Reeder to the point of paralyzing him.
On paper, Troy Reeder seems to have checked all the right boxes. He stands 6-foot-3, weighs 236 pounds, and has the wingspan of an albatross. By rights, his Stretch Armstrong reach ought to allow him to become a quarterback's worst nightmare. Nestled in the heart of the defense, his stature and long arms should be enough to deflect anything thrown to the middle of the football field.
Unfortunately, that seldom proved to be the case. Reeder's best year at defending the pass occured in 2022, the lone year that he competed for the Los Angeles Chargers. In that year, he allowed 66.7 percent of passes to find their mark. With the Rams over the other five NFL seasons, Reeder had averaged 80.1 percent of passes to be caught. That happens to be the best aspect of his defense.
If you look up Reeder's Pro Football Focus grade, you may be led to believe that he has a serviceable run defense in his bones. Don't believe it. Reeder does nothing to vary his approach to defending either the run or the pass. That means that he plays off the line of scrimmage approximately five to seven yards, diagnoses the play as the ball is snapped, then remains flat-footed in place to await the running back. Over the past two seasons, Reeder has been credited with just one tackle for a loss. That is over 564 defensive snaps.
Even worse, over the past two seasons, Reeder has missed on 11.5 percent of his tackles. Yikes.
For comparison purposes, rookie ILBB Omar Speights played 419 defensive snaps while recording two tackles for a loss, and missed just 4.3 percent of his attempted tackles.
If Reeder was a rookie, you could argue that he might grow out of this. But he has plateaued, and at a level that simply comes up short for a starter in this defense
(1) - TE Hunter Long
Tight end Hunter Long is the 'other guy,' involved in the Rams trade of All-Pro defensive back Jalen Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins. At the time, Long was touted as a tight end that had intrigued the Rams front office in the 2021 NFL Draft. Ultimately, he was selected in Round 3 by the Dolphins, appearing in three games with two starts as a rookie.
The Rams seem to have two categories for tight end roles on the team. Former tight end Gerald Everett seemed to check the box for a pass-catching tight end. The Rams hoped to coach former tight end Brycen Hopkins into that type of role, with little success. Had the team managed to trade up in either of the past two drafts to select either TE Dalton Kincaid or Brock Bowers, they would have taken up the mantle of that role.
The team is not unappreciative of a blocking tight end. TE Johnny Mundt had a great deal of success in that niche role in the Rams offense. When the team tapped Hunter Long as a player to include in the Ramsey trade, the team almost certainly considered him in that blocking tight end category.
Unfortunately for the Rams, Hunter Long never developed into a blocking tight end either.
I'm not suggesting that Long couldn't block. He simply did not block consistently. And the Rams offense vitally depends on blocking tight ends to, well . . . block. In 2024, with starting tight end Tyler Higbee out for almost the entire season, Long had every opportunity to seize a larger role in the offense. But he only mustered 279 offensive snaps, nine targets, seven catches, one drop, and 60 receiving yards. Considering the fact that the Rams carried four tight ends on the roster in 2024 while Tyler Higbee was getting his sea legs under him, that was a pretty poor return for a valuable roster spot.
The team is still in need of a successor to veteran TE Tyler Higbee, but Hunter Long is not even close. While I believe Long could have value on some NFL teams in a backup tight end role, the Rams roster is saturated with tight ends who have plateaued. They may reinforce the ranks in the abundance of tight end talent available in the 2025 NFL Draft, but that is the exception rather than the rule this offseason.
These three players have exhausted their chances with the LA Rams. While you may disagree with the term 'bust,' as it is used in this headline, the meaning is quite clear. There's the door, and the Rams urge that these players do not let it hit them on the way out.
As always, thanks for reading.
