Los Angeles Rams Urged To Fix Critical 2024 Mistake With Very Familiar Face

The Los Angeles Rams demonstrated a strong defensive front in the playoffs, a testament to the core group returning for the 2025 season. However, a not-so-subtle critical flaw was highlighted in their Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs; allowing Saquon Barkley to run up 205 yards on them.

The Rams traded linebacker Ernest Jones IV earlier in the season, a move that has been widely criticized within the fanbase. Re-acquiring the talented young linebacker with a proven track record, would not only address the team’s need for improved run defense but also serve as a symbolic acknowledgment of a past misstep.

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: Los Angeles Rams Urged To Fix Critical 2024 Mistake With Very Familiar Face

Should Ernest Jones Be A Priority Los Angeles Rams Free Agent

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Clutch Points Matty Breisch made that very suggestion in his recent article on the most important free-agent targets for the Rams;

“Before Jones IV was traded to the Tennessee Titans, many considered the third-round pick out of South Carolina the lynchpin of LA’ defense,” Breisch writes.

Standing 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, Jones IV saw the field as a rookie in 2021 on the way to a Super Bowl win, broke out in 2022, and played some of the best football you will see in 2023, when he was strong against the run, a very good coverage player, and was even a force in the pass rushing game, where he picked up a career-high 4.5 sacks over 15 regular season games.

While the Rams thought they had enough depth to let Jones IV go, as it seemed unlikely that the two sides were going to be able to agree to a deal before the start of free agency, in the end, that assumption was dead wrong, at least until the end of the season, when undrafted rookie Omar Speights really caught on at linebacker.”

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The Rams could potentially field an inside linebacker core consisting of Speights and free agents Troy Reeder, and Christian Rozeboom, potentially supplemented by a draft pick or a cheap free-agent acquisition. While this configuration is possible, a significant upgrade could be achieved by simply atoning for underestimating Jones’s importance to the defense.

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