For the first two years of Nick Scott’s career, he was primarily a special teams player for the Los Angeles Rams. He got more opportunities last year, playing 36% of the defensive snaps, but he’s since ascended into a starter on the backend.
His rise has been fun to watch because of the way he plays week in and week out. Not only is he good in coverage, but he’s also a hard hitter for a guy his size. We saw him lay out Deebo Samuel and A.J. Green in the playoffs last year, and he’s continued to play with that same toughness this season.
Sean McVay loves what he’s seen from Scott over the course of his career, calling him a “fearless” player who can do everything as a safety.
“He’s tough,” McVay said on the “Coach McVay Show.” “Just him as a competitor, his confidence and the progression and the growth and development we’ve seen over the last couple years, can’t help but love that guy. Similar to what we were saying about Cooper Kupp, this is a guy that embodies a lot of the things that good football teams have – that character, that toughness, that competitiveness. Love Nick Scott.”
McVay continued: “Oh, he’s fearless. He has no flinch, no fear. Does a great job of being able to keep his head out of those tackles. Whether it’s coming from the post, whether it’s being an underneath defender, his range, his ball skills. I mean, he can do it all as a safety. I thought the toughness and the competes was really on display for him last week.”
Scott was unfortunately on the wrong end of a run by Josh Allen in the opener, one where Allen used a stiff-arm on Scott to pick up a first down. It was a good play by the Bills quarterback, but it’s not as if Scott was trampled by Allen in the open field.
He still forced Allen out of bounds, and McVay isn’t sure why so much was made of that single rep.
“I thought that was a great play by two great competitors,” he said. “You can see, he’s coming inside-out on an outstanding athlete, he ends up getting the stiff-arm but he was able to get a great wrap tackle right there. I thought there was a lot made of that but I thought it was two great players making a competitive play against one another.”
