The Los Angeles Rams went all in on rebuilding their cornerbacks room this offseason, flashing the cash to both trade for Trent McDuffie, acquiring him from the Kansas City Chiefs, and to sign another former Chief, Jaylen Watson, as a free agent.
McDuffie’s play through his first four seasons in Kansas City earned him the record-setting extension Los Angeles gave him in March. A former first-round pick, McDuffie is a two-time All-Pro (first team in 2023, second team in 2024), he’s a willing tackler and he brings legitimate inside-outside versatility.
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Watson was far less touted as a prospect, going to the Chiefs with a seventh-round pick the same year McDuffie was drafted, 2022, and he beat out competition multiple times to lock in a starting job in Steve Spaguolo’s defense. He’s established himself as a legitimate contributor and one of the more physical starting boundary corners in the NFL.
Adding McDuffie and Watson to replace last year’s cornerback rotation earned the Rams plaudits from ESPN analyst Ben Solak, who ranked L.A.’s cornerbacks room renovation the sixth-best positional upgrade around the league this year.
As Solak points out, the Rams’ secondary play wasn’t downright bad last season. According to Next Gen Stats and NFL Pro, the Rams were 10th in EPA allowed per pass play in 2025, and they finished sixth in average target separation allowed. There’s noise with these stats, considering all defensive backs are included, pass rush influences these numbers as well, etc., but it’s not as if this unit was terrible. It was even a little surprising that Cobie Durant only signed for a cheap, one-year deal with the Dallas Cowboys.
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But why settle for “good enough” when you have a chance at being great? The Chiefs weren’t an elite defense last season, but over the past four years Spagnuolo has assembled some of the better defenses in the NFL and these two cornerbacks were a crucial part of that.
Along with a general influx of better talent, Solak breaks down one of the biggest additions this duo brings to the table: Versatility.
The Rams will major in zone coverages and big cushions, and Watson can still play in those (and McDuffie will thrive in them). But Shula can be much more versatile in how he picks his matchups now that he has the pair of new cover men. Watson can handle the traditional “X” receivers who tend to give McDuffie issues (think Mike Evans), while McDuffie can travel inside and outside with versatile receivers (think Jaxon Smith-Njigba). Both can still zone off, and their pre-snap alignments won’t reveal Shula’s post-snap intentions. On both talent and scheme, this is a big leap.
Earlier this offseason, we evaluated whether McDuffie is better on the boundary or in the slot. While useful information for certain matchups, the great thing about bringing McDuffie in is that he’s an improvement over last year wherever you line him up. To have a piece who can do everything and to pair him with a guy who’s great in man and decent in zone (not to mention the fact they’ve got built-in chemistry to start the year), a whole new world of opportunity is open for Chris Shula, one of the most creative defensive play callers in the sport.
Going up and down Solak’s list, there’s one other exciting element for the Rams: They’re the only NFC powerhouse included on it. Most of the positional upgrades Solak lauded are on teams that don’t have expectations nearly as high as the Rams do. It’s not easy to already have one of the best rosters in the NFL on paper and then to take such a drastic step forward, but the Rams have done that with these additions. Don’t feel biased if you feel that way, because clearly national coverage is sharing that school of thought.
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