ranking/assessing the Rams as an organization

Rams after 4 weeks: What I’ve learned about Matthew Stafford, Sean McVay and more

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6677953/2025/10/01/rams-matthew-stafford-sean-mcvay-jared-verse/?source=emp_shared_article

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — It’s been an entertaining first quarter of the season covering the Los Angeles Rams.

They are 3-1 and a deserving 3-1. However, the road to get there has been interesting. They had a chance to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles before a late collapse and probably deserved to lose to the Indianapolis Colts, but found a way thanks to a couple of lucky bounces.

After a close but decisive Week 1 victory over the Houston Texans and a take-care-of-business win over the lacking Tennessee Titans, we’ve seen back-and-forth games and fireworks.

In the words of Rams coach Sean McVay, “We’re not a boring team to watch.”

This was a unique beat to join in Week 1, because I’d covered quarterback Matthew Stafford for three seasons already, but he was the only player on the roster I’d covered across three previous NFL beats (Colts, Detroit Lions and Chicago Bears).

Here’s what has stood out through the quarter mark of the season.

Stafford looks like his old self, mostly

It had been six seasons since I last covered Stafford, which meant I had gone from three years of him in his prime, at ages 28-30, to one in which he was trying to sustain himself at age 37.

What struck me from the first practice is that the arm looks the same. I’ve always told people that watching Stafford’s arm in practices is one of the game’s great joys, and that velocity is there the same way his arm slots and no-look approaches are.

However, it is a little different as well.

There are two images of Stafford I’ll never forget from Detroit: One was of him barreling through two Bears defenders with a dislocated finger to score a game-winning touchdown. The other was when he stood with Khalil Mack draped over him and threw a ball down the middle of the field as if it were practice and his bones weren’t about to crush.

We’re not currently seeing that version. This one is fighting to live for another play, another game, another milestone, another shot at a title. And that means passing up scramble lanes on bootlegs and dirting the ball in the face of free rushers. It means throwing earlier than he’s used to and living with the results, which lead to what he calls “physical misses” at times.

However, it also means playing a chess game with opposing defenses that has him dialed in and knowing where to attack by the fourth quarter, which was always the best version of Stafford in Detroit.

“His brain is still working to move people at the last minute,” wide receiver Davante Adams said. “It’s a hell of a tool that he’s obviously worked on for a long time. It takes a different type of talent and different type of human to be able to do that.”

The day I arrived, I told Stafford that his passes look the same, but his beard has a few more gray hairs. For as long as that can remain true, the Rams still have a weapon at the game’s most crucial position.

McVay’s greatest strength

The book on the Rams coach has also been written many times, with the most obvious angle being that every offensive coach who spends time around him seems to get a bigger job in this league.

However, McVay is much more than an offensive coach. He does not miss when hiring a defensive coordinator.

Chris Shula has been terrific through the first four weeks of this season, engineering a Rams defense that ranks in the top 10 in just about every category. He’s had good adjustments, like in changing his stacked-box approach against Saquon Barkley to limit last season’s NFL Offensive Player of the Year to his worst rushing total with the Eagles.

He’s been creative with pressure packages, like the play Sunday when he blitzed Jared Verse from the middle linebacker spot, and he ran over Colts center Tanor Bortolini.

I love this 3rd-and-long rush package:

Jared Verse with a running launch at the C, creating a loop for Kobie Turner to get in the face of the QB with Byron Young & Josiah Stewart either rushing or dropping out of that disruption.

I’d put L.A.’s edge group up there with any. pic.twitter.com/RWOo4EORfk

— Nate Atkins (@NateAtkins_) September 30, 2025

What’s most impressive is that Shula is doing it with the lowest level of investment of any defense. The Rams rank dead last in 2025 cap hits defensively, and they’re playing just one first-round pick (Verse) and a second-round pick (defensive end Braden Fiske).

I find that staffing is one of the top traits in a head coach that often goes overlooked. I saw the lack of that skill sink Matt Patricia in Detroit. And it says something when the best hires come on the opposite side of the ball from that head coach’s strength. McVay has shown that with Wade Phillips, Brandon Staley, Raheem Morris and now Shula. Two were big names and more obvious hires, but the other two were bets on rising assistants.

You can tell from his detailed and accurate breakdowns of individual defenders that McVay takes an active role in the defense in a way many offensive play-calling head coaches don’t. I never sensed the same from Shane Steichen in Indianapolis or from John Fox in Chicago.

This is particularly challenging for coaches who rise to top jobs by working at unhealthy levels on one side of the ball. Still, I think it speaks to McVay’s ability to relate across spectrums, his willingness to evolve within the head-coaching role after Phillips moved on and to his broader football understanding as the grandson of a San Francisco 49ers executive.

How the Rams have aged with the Stafford trade

I recall thinking that when the Rams made trades for Stafford and Von Miller and signed Odell Beckham Jr. in 2021, it made sense as an all-in move to chase a Super Bowl, but that it could come at a high cost to the future once those draft picks and salary-cap space were depleted.

The Rams have faced some costs — most notably their 2022 season — but are back to looking like a contender in Year 5 with Stafford, thanks to the way their franchise’s leadership is structured.

The Athletic ran a poll of 29 general managers to begin the season, and those executives ranked the Rams’ front office at No. 3 in the sport. It manifests in various ways, but particularly on one side of the ball.

“They stay ahead of where defenses are trending,” one executive said in the survey.

I was skeptical at the time of the trade that a team would draft immensely better than the rest of the curve without first-round picks, because history in this league shows that’s so rare to do with the dart throws of Day 3.

However, the Rams have paired McVay’s forward-thinking hires at defensive coordinator with market inefficiencies in the skill sets they acquire.

You see it in a player like defensive back Quentin Lake, whom they found in the sixth round in 2022. With a 4.59-second 40-yard dash, he doesn’t jump off the page as the field-roamer teams want at this position. However, the Rams have a unique position for him at “Star,” where his role stays blurred between nickel and safety alignments to let his instincts and play recognition get him close to the ball. Now, in Year 4, he looks like a Pro Bowl-caliber player.

You see it in a signing for the veteran minimum, like Nate Landman. His specific traits, such as leadership and tackling, are difficult to measure but fit exactly what the Rams needed this offseason as a finishing piece to their front seven.

Asking the quarterback who cost those picks to win a Super Bowl in 2021 to then carry the team at age 37 would have been a bad model. However, that’s not what’s happening here, thanks to the identities shared by the coaching staff and front office.

Why Verse is the best pass rusher in the 2024 draft

Verse was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year last season, but I was curious to see how he measured against what I saw this summer from Laiatu Latu, whom the Colts selected four picks ahead of him.

Sunday was a window into the talents of two good players. Latu had his best game as a Colts player, consistently pressuring on the right side. However, Verse was a step better, in part because he’s more well-rounded. Whereas the Colts already had some edge-setting ends and wanted a finisher for third downs, Verse is the kind of power player as a run defender and rusher that offenses have to game plan for on all three downs, whether they’re passing or running teams. It creates a trickle-down effect for every other player around him.

That is essential to managing a defense with no other first-round picks and the lowest spending in the league on that side of the ball.

Verse’s story can’t just be told through his 6.5 sacks in 21 career games. It’s in how his 89 pressures in those games help create for the deep unit around him, how he redirects run plays and how his wear-you-down style wins in the fourth quarter. It isn’t as dependent upon having a lead the way Latu often is.

Tutu Atwell’s role is perplexing

Every fan base has some trademark bits. The Ramily, as they call it, keeps bringing up two playing time conundrums in Atwell and second-round rookie tight end Terrance Ferguson.

The Ferguson one, I get. Every team I’ve covered has made it clear how difficult the rookie transition is for tight ends who come in as either receivers who can’t block or blockers who can’t run routes. The offensive install in a week-to-week league can be overwhelming, and I sense Ferguson was a late-season pick rather than an early one.

Atwell is more complex because he’s a fifth-year player who knows the system — and is what he is physically. The Rams chose to bring him back for $10 million in the spring, only to throw him the ball five times in four games.

The Rams want their base personnel to be able to run with advantages at all times, and at 5-foot-9, 165 pounds, blocking is a challenge for Atwell. That’s especially true in the slot, where the role is open with star receivers Puka Nacua and Adams on the outside. However, it doesn’t explain why the Rams allocated $10 million from a relatively constrained budget for this role.

Right now, he’s a lever to pull, either late in a game, like with Sunday’s 88-yard game winner, or if Nacua or Adams were ever to get hurt. This passing game is built on those two receivers who rank in the top eight in the league in targets, and they need a trusted player there at all times, not a rookie or true backup.

However, the Rams need Atwell to diversify this passing attack. If Ferguson isn’t ready, Atwell is the only one who can really bring this on any volume. Running back Kyren Williams is commanding such a high-end rushing role, Blake Corum isn’t ready as a pass catcher, tight end Tyler Higbee is not as spry as he used to be, the other tight ends are blocking-focused and Jordan Whittington is a young player with a special teams and blocking role that leaves him as a splash play rather than a foundational part of the progression.

I mostly have good impressions of the Rams and how they operate, but this is one area where they need to take a different approach. Atwell is averaging 8.5 yards per target in a career with 169 passes thrown his way. He needs to be more than this for the Rams if they want to be more effective on third downs and in the red zone.