Who Are The Five Greatest Rams Of All Time?

Who Are The Five Greatest Rams Of All Time?​

The 2019 season hardly delivered to the levels the Rams fan base had hoped for. There are countless articles focusing on what is needed moving forward, but we believe it’s important to look back too.

For that reason, we’ve decided to lift some of 2020s doom and gloom by taking a glance back at five of the greatest Rams of all time. Here goes. ​​

Number 5. Eric Dickerson ​

Running back Dickerson came to the Rams as the number two draft pick back in 1983. He was already well known to football fans after he finished runner up in the Heisman voting a year earlier whilst with SMU and his potential became all the more obvious in his breakthrough year in the NFL.

He recorded 1,808 rushing yards to set a rookie record and lead the NFL and he replicated that feat in ’84 and ’86 prior to leaving for new pastures at the end of the 1987 campaign.

During his five years in LA, Dickerson was featured in four Pro Bowls and was awarded the same number of First-Team All-Pro honors.​ Had he stayed for longer then it’s quite possible he’d be higher in this list.​

Number 4. Merlin Olsen ​

Question marks are often thrown around at top-level sport about the loyalty of all parties involved. It’s a query that cannot be angled at Olsen. After a rookie year that saw him scoop the Rookie of the Year award in 1962, he remained with the Rams for all 15 years of his pro career. He was a model of consistency too making 14 back to back Pro Bowls – his final season, 1976, the one year he didn’t appear. To this day, he’s one of the greatest defensive tackles to grace the NFL, and last year he was named in the 100th-anniversary team to confirm exactly that.​

Number 3. Deacon Jones ​​

Along with Olsen, Jones’ status as a Rams legend was assured the moment, he formed part of the famed fearsome four. Between them, they were near impenetrable, and Jones was a huge contributor to that solidity in the defense with his performances singlehandedly going a long way to making the “sack” stat the key measure it is in today’s game.

Remarkably, when Jones was selected by the Rams during the 1961 draft, 185 picks had already gone before him. 11 years later – when he left to join the San Diego Chargers – he’d racked up eight All-Pro awards and seven Pro-Bowl appearances. If a Super Bowl success had come during his era then he may well sit higher than third in this list.​

Number 2. Kurt Warner ​

We’ve just mentioned the lack of a Super Bowl goes against Jones and that means the fact that Warner led the Rams to two showdowns should be a big tick in his ‘plus column’. It is. First, though, let’s rewind his career a bit further.

He originally went undrafted before a spell with the Iowa Barnstormers and a solitary season stint in Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals. When the Rams bought him back to the States in 1998 there were a few eyebrows raised but any doubters were firmly silenced in the following 12 months as Warner posted 4,353 regular-season yards and a further 1,063 in the post-season as the Rams triumphed in the Super Bowl. The MVP of that game? That’s right, Warner, who was also named league MVP too.

Two years later, Warner was at it again as he won his second NFL MVP award with a career-high 4,830 regular-season yards. The Super Bowl evaded the Rams that year with the New England Patriots emerging victorious at the Louisiana Superdome. It takes nothing away from his Rams career though. He was a truly remarkable quarterback whose journey will be hitting the big screen soon.

Number 1. Marshall Faulk​

If you’ve just read the above on Kurt Warner, then you’d be forgiven for questioning what someone might have done to surpass him as the greatest Ram of all time. Well, it’s one thing to throw like a star but it’s no good without a top-class offense around you. In Marshall Faulk, the Rams of the late nineties and early 2000s had a world-class running back.

His versatility to crucify a defense in the air or on the turf was almost beyond belief. Whilst we intend no disrespect to Warner, we firmly believe that even with just a half-decent QB (Warner was better than half-decent), the Rams would still have been very much in the running for Super Bowl titles.

During his eight-year career with the Rams, he was named Offensive Player of the Year on three occasions with 2000 seeing him named the NFL MVP and he’s widely regarded as one of the best running backs of all time. ​

There you have it, five of the greatest Rams of all time who the current crop should be modeling their NFL future on.

If they get anywhere near the level of these five, then legendary statuses await. Meanwhile, check out what position the LA Rams are in on the NFL odds for next season here: https://extra.betamerica.com/nfl/odds/