Rams trade for CB … including the “big article”

from der wiki

Roger McCreary
Born February 10, 2000 (age 25)
Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight 190 lb (86 kg)

The Tennessee Titans selected McCreary in the second round (35th overall) of the 2022 NFL draft.[15] He was the fifth cornerback selected.

He started all 17 games in his rookie season, finishing with 84 total tackles, one interception, and eight passes defensed.[16] McCreary also helped force a notable turnover on Week 15 against the Los Angeles Chargers, by jumping out of bounds to tip a pass mid-air by Justin Herbert, which was received by Joshua Kalu for an assisted interception.[17][18]

McCreary moved into the starting nickelback position for the 2023 season. He played in 15 games with 11 starts, recording 86 tackles, two sacks, six passes defensed, one interception, and a forced fumble.[19]

During the 2024 season, McCreary appeared in 15 games, recording 50 tackles, a pass deflection, three pressures, and a sack.[20]

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Sean McVay said the Rams needed some depth in the DB room on the whole, and new CB Roger McCreary answers that in a couple ways.

He mentioned letting Quentin Lake “wear a bunch of different hats.”

On McCreary: “He can play inside or outside… I like him for his versatility.”

Ian Rapoport@RapSheet
CB Roger McCreary is being traded to the #Rams, some real help for one of the NFL’s top defenses.

Mike Clay@MikeClayNFL
Quentin Lake has manned the slot for the Rams, which was McCreary’s job in Tennessee. The Rams been rotating 3 guys (Durant, Williams, Forbes) on the boundary.

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
CB Roger McCreary is on his way to Los Angeles. Think he’s going to add value almost immediately. Only 25 years old and has 38 starts in his 4 year career with Tennessee.

Jim Youngblood 53@53_jim70721
He *can* play perimeter CB, But has been mostly a slot. Cannot imagine Lake losing reps as slot CB. The safeties have been good, Curl and Kinchens — if Lake played more S, one of those guys sit.

*maybe* Lake moves to dime LBer in place of McCullough some?

Roger McCreary, playing slot, rotates to deep 1/2 safety in a non-traditional Tampa-2 cverage

and picks off ball — high points it, QB boot left

passed off his original assignment to pick up deep crosser.

Fine play pic.twitter.com/DmjRk64d76

— Jim Youngblood 53 (@53_jim70721) October 27, 2025

from Stu Jackson: https://www.therams.com/news/rams-trade-for-cb-roger-mccreary-titans-2025-nfl-trade-deadline

In a corresponding move to make room for McCreary on their 53-man roster, the Rams placed wide receiver Tutu Atwell on Injured Reserve.

Head coach Sean McVay on Monday said the move was influenced in part by the Rams being banged up at cornerback. Los Angeles has already been without Ahkello Witherspoon (broken clavicle) for the last six weeks, and Darious Williams came out of Week 7 against the Jaguars with a shoulder injury, though McVay left the door open for him to potentially play this week against the Saints.

“We were looking to be able to just add some depth,” McVay said. “He’s a guy that (we) respect from playing against him earlier this year, has some inside-outside flex. Actually, (assistant head coach/pass game coordinator) Aubrey (Pleasant) coached him in the Senior Bowl when he was coming out of Auburn, and so we’re excited to get him in. … Just talked to him, he’ll get packed and we’ll get him out here, and then we’ll see what it looks like to be able to get him going for this week. But excited to be able to add him, respect his game from going against them. I’ve heard great things about the human being from people that have been around him. Aubrey enjoyed coaching him at the Senior Bowl, and he’ll be able to add some depth to our group, and we’re excited about it.”

McCreary, 25, has 33 total tackles, two passes defensed and one interception in eight games (three starts) with the Titans this season. In Week 2 against the Rams, he had seven total tackles and one pass defensed, and his overall performance left a positive impression on McVay and the coaching staff.

“I think just the competitiveness,” McVay said. “I think what (Titans defensive coordinator) Dennard (Wilson) asks of that slot position and that system in general, activated as a blitzer inside on some of the run fits, the lateral movement and the short-space quickness to be able to guard guys on a two-way go. They’ll play some vision zone, and they play some matchup stuff where he’s in man or he’s sticky, based on some of the principles that they play, and all of that you could see could do at a high level. But I just respected and I liked the competitor. I saw a competitive player on tape, played big at the point of attack, would get his face dirty if he was involved in the run fit, they could blitz him internally, externally.”

How Rams’ addition of Roger McCreary could unlock even more in Quentin Lake

By Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6765301/2025/10/31/rams-secondary-quentin-lake-roger-mccreary/?source=emp_shared_article

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — Roger McCreary ran off the field from his first Los Angeles Rams practice drenched in a sweat he didn’t expect to feel this time of year.

The cold had just arrived in Nashville, Tenn., the only home he’d known in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans. Here he was suiting up in a different uniform in Week 9, pushing through the heat to try to figure out how he fits in a defensive puzzle that the Rams are only just putting together.

But what struck him, more than the heat or the traffic on the way to the facility, was an energy shift in going from a team that picked No. 1 overall in April to the one he’s on now.

“They were having fun beating us,” McCreary said, referencing the Rams’ 33-19 win over the Titans in Week 2. “I see it in person now. They’re still having fun. Guys joke, and then it’s time to get serious. You can tell that they trust in having fun with each other.”

He’s sensing a confidence in these early moments, oozing from a team that’s 5-2 and a defense that has given up the third-fewest points per game despite featuring the lowest collection of defensive salaries in the NFL for 2025.

It’s quite an opportunity for a cornerback to step into in his contract year. And now, the question is all about how McCreary can fit in.

It was never a surprise that the Rams were after cornerback help ahead of the trade deadline. After all, they lost top outside option Ahkello Witherspoon to a broken clavicle in that game against the Titans. Although he’s expected to return on a 12-week timetable from the injury, what disappeared in the interim was his length against physical receivers and the ball skills that let him intercept four passes and break up 23 more over the previous two seasons.

But the replacement for Witherspoon in this trade is not the same player. Whereas Witherspoon measures 6-foot-2, McCreary is 5-foot-11. And though he played outside cornerback a good amount his first two seasons, he’s since been relegated to a slot role for all but one coverage snap this season, according to TruMedia.

After two stout seasons of allowing fewer than 7.0 yards per coverage snap, according to Sports Info Solutions, McCreary is allowing 8.8 this season and has only gotten his hands on one football in eight games. But the Rams are betting on a change of scenery bringing something more out of a 25-year-old in a contract year.

The Rams acquired McCreary for all of a Day 3 pick swap, moving from the fifth to the sixth round. But the trade also said something about what Los Angeles really covets at the moment.

“There’s a lot of different stuff (we) can do now that (we) have a lot of versatile guys,” defensive back Quentin Lake said. “It gives (us) a lot of flexibility with what (we) want to do.”

Giving defensive coordinator Chris Shula one more outlet to get creative mattered more than finding a true replacement for Witherspoon. After all, Witherspoon is expected back in about six weeks. Darious Williams has regained his outside role and has become a similar playmaker, with six pass breakups over the past two games. Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. have shown growth at the other outside spot.

Rather, this move was about accentuating one of the budding talents already on the roster.

Why the McCreary trade is really about Lake

Sean McVay didn’t know too much about his newest cornerback before he arrived at the facility this week. The Rams coach knew his pass game coordinator, Aubrey Pleasant, held strong impressions from coaching McCreary at the Senior Bowl. And he knew he needed more depth in a secondary that had lost Witherspoon.

But when asked about McCreary moments after the trade went down, McVay twice brought up another player on his defense.

“He could play inside or outside,” McVay said of McCreary, “but feel really good about obviously what Quentin Lake does and the many hats that he wears for us.”

The Rams had a growing trust in Lake entering this season, following his first year as a full-time starter in 2024. But what has emerged over the past two games is that, on top of being a key run defender and versatile communicator on the back end, Lake can also make plays. He secured his first career interception against the Baltimore Ravens, in addition to a fumble recovery. Then, against the Jacksonville Jaguars, he scored a sack and added two pass breakups.

For a player who has spent this season rotating from the slot to strong safety to free safety to dime linebacker, the past two games have created a validation of the prime spot he’s entering in a contract year. He now ranks third among all safeties in Field Vision’s “Havoc” rating, which scores when players record an interception, forced fumble, sack, pass breakup and reception allowed.

“It plays to my advantage because (offenses are) like, ‘Oh, this guy might move a lot. We might try to pick on him because he is moving a lot,’ but I feel like I mask it,” Lake said. “If they do try to try me, I hope so, because it’s going to be a bad day for the offense. I’ve been getting a lot of action, and I love it. Being in the slot, you get so much action and opportunity: You can blitz, you can man, you can zone, all that stuff.”

In a way, it can look like adding a player such as McCreary, whose foundational position is in the slot, could stunt the growth Lake has shown in that role. But the Rams are viewing this through the opposite lens.

“Strong safety and slot are the same, if you think about it,” Lake said. “Usually, if you’re in any type of rotating coverage, whether that’s man or zone, you’re coming down on a slot receiver. Some teams will go formation into the boundary to get that mismatch with the safety, but if you’re playing strong safety with the nickel on the other side, it’s really the same thing as you playing slot. When I really understood that, and then I’m playing strong safety, it’s like, ‘I’m just playing nickel now, but I’m just going against some faster guys and some guys who have a little more quick twitch.’”

To create these different roles for Lake to rotate between before the snap, the Rams run dime packages with six defensive backs at a higher rate than any team in the league. Dime is their way to spare linebackers from coverage and to avoid what the San Francisco 49ers exploited in a Week 5 loss. It’s something they can feel confident running, thanks to a remade run defense with linebacker Nate Landman and defensive tackle Poona Ford creating obvious passing situations on second and third downs.

It allows the Rams to play in a “cheetah” look, with those six coverage players flanking a pass rush with Jared Verse, Byron Young, Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske on the field at the same time.

But it’s only going to work if they have six defensive backs they can trust.

Enter McCreary and his 38 career starts.

“I feel like I can play inside and outside,” McCreary said. “They told me they’ll need me in those spots. They’ve given me the main role that I’m going to be at, but they want me to help right away.”

McCreary needed one meeting with his new position group to get a quick sense of how this puzzle begins — with Lake at the center.

“That’s a leader right there,” McCreary said. “That’s a guy I see that they have a lot of faith in to lead that back end. I see him making plays, just from watching outside and watching film. Seeing on the field and how he plays, you can see he’s the leader. That’s the guy I’m going to learn a lot from.”

This is, ultimately, a bet on Lake and Shula and their growing synergy in carrying designs to the field in a passing league where their job is to react to what offenses are throwing at them.

“Anytime you have smart players that can move around, it allows you to get your best 11 on the field,” Shula said.

The overall investment hasn’t flipped by sending out a conditional Day 3 pick. But the options have.

Now, it’s on Lake to make those puzzle pieces fit on the fly and to see if he can build on the playmaking that could soon make him a player offenses try to avoid. For a kid who grew up in Los Angeles, played at UCLA and was drafted in the sixth round by the hometown Rams, the long-term payoff is something he dreams about.

“This is a place I’d love to play for, for the rest of my career,” Lake said.