Will Rams’ Fan-Favorite Ahkello Witherspoon Return as a Free Agent

Ahkello Witherspoon had one interception and forced one fumble in 2024. Both plays led to important Rams wins. Les Snead and Sean McVay now need to decide whether the quality-over-quantity cornerback is worth re-signing.

Witherspoon, who turns 30 later this month, made two of the most memorable plays of the Rams’ season.

First, in Week 17 at home against the Cardinals, Witherspoon went full-extension to secure a jaw-dropping, end-zone interception and ice a critical 13-9 win. Kyler Murray had driven Arizona into position for the game-winning touchdown with less than a minute left. His bullet pass ricocheted off the helmet of tight end Trey McBride and, before the ball exited the side of the end zone, Witherspoon’s Superman-style interception allowed the Rams to run out the clock.

The victory combined with results of other games the next day clinched the NFC West title and guaranteed a home game for Los Angeles. Unfortunately, two weeks later, the NFL moved that home game to Arizona because wildfires were ravaging the L.A. area. But Witherspoon delivered again.

With Sam Darnold and the Vikings driving for a game-tying score late in the first half, Chris Shula sent Witherspoon on a corner blitz. He sacked the quarterback and forced a fumble before Jared Verse returned the loose ball 57 yards for a touchdown to give Los Angeles a 17-3 advantage before halftime. Witherspoon’s sack was one of nine against the Vikings, tying the single-game NFL postseason record.

The interception and fumble came only three weeks after Witherspoon hit a crossroads in the office of assistant head coach Aubrey Pleasant.

“I told him, ‘Hey, Aub, I’m just talking to you. Just getting it off my chest,'” Witherspoon told beat writer Jourdan Rodrigue recently. “‘I’m losing it.’ I was telling him, ‘I’m a player. I don’t do this to watch.’”

Witherspoon said the impetus for the meeting was simply that he felt better physically than he ever had, and needed to play more than the six snaps he saw combined in Weeks 13 and 14. He didn’t need to wait long.

The Rams needed him on a short week to replace injured starter Cobie Durant, serendipitously against the team that selected Witherspoon in the third round of the 2017 draft. And on a rainy Thursday night at San Francisco, he broke up Brock Purdy’s deep pass to help preserve a 12-6 win.

That play sparked his impressive run to end the season. And while Witherspoon told Rodrigue he might need to wait a few months after free agency begins this week, he knows at least one team will see that he’s entering his 30s with renewed passion, on an upward trajectory.

“I would say mentally, for me, it’s just putting my focus elsewhere — my family, training, focusing on getting better however I can,” he told Rodrigue. “For me, it’s really easy to focus on what I need to focus on, even not being in a building or not having a job. When you know you’re the caliber of player that once it’s time to go — you’re gonna be on the field. That’s the thing that keeps me going.”