Ernest Jones emerged as one of the better inside linebackers in the league last season when he racked up 145 tackles and 4.5 sacks in just 15 games played. He seemed destined for a long career with the Los Angeles Rams but it’s now looking like 2023 was his last season with the team that drafted him in the third round three years ago.
On Sunday, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported that the Rams have granted Jones permission to seek a trade after there was no progress made on a potential contract extension. Jones is set to become a free agent in 2025 but the Rams opted not to extend him, forcing him to play out the final year of his deal.
Suffice to say, this is a huge risk by Los Angeles. Les Snead and Sean McVay have never put much value in the inside linebacker position. Yes, they used a third-round pick on Jones in 2021 and signed Bobby Wagner in 2022, but this is also the team that had Troy Reeder as its starting linebacker during its Super Bowl run.
Jones just shouldn’t be a player the Rams trade away. He was a team captain in 2023, as well as the defensive signal caller. He was arguably the best blitzing linebacker in football last season and finished the year with the seventh-best overall grade among all inside linebackers, according to PFF.
He does so many things for the Rams defense that it’s shocking they’re willing to trade him away. Even worse, they have absolutely no proven talent behind him on the depth chart.
Assuming Jones gets traded away, it would leave Christian Rozeboom as the primary linebacker on the starting defense. Rozeboom is a decent player, but he only played 49% of the defensive snaps last season and missed more tackles (18) than Jones did (11) in 380 fewer snaps.
Rozeboom was also in coverage on 134 fewer snaps than Jones, yet he allowed 43 receptions on 49 targets compared to 37 receptions on 50 targets for Jones. He was significantly worse than Jones in every department last season, but it’s looking like he’ll be the starting linebacker this year.
As promising as Omar Speights and Jacob Hummel looked in the preseason, it’s hard to imagine the Rams feeling confident enough in them as starters to open the year. So more than likely, it’ll be Rozeboom and Reeder manning the linebacker position initially.
We’re about to find out how big the drop-off is from Jones to Rozeboom and Reeder, which could be pretty steep. And the result is likely to be a run defense that suffers in a big way, as well as a pass rush that’s less dynamic without Jones’ blitzing ability.
This is Chris Shula’s defense now so that could be part of this unexpected shift at linebacker. The Rams might be keeping as many as six safeties, so we might see more three-safety sets in dime packages. But still, there’s really no replacing an inside linebacker like Jones, even in today’s pass-first NFL.
It’s obvious the Rams don’t put much value in linebackers but moving on from Jones, who’s just hitting his prime, is a huge risk and one that could make an already unproven defense significantly worse.
