I was as skeptical as anyone of Barron playing ILB in Phillips' defense. But he did play well this year, often while playing hurt. Now as a unit I've said that you can have smaller ILBs or a smaller NT but you can't have both. That triangle up the middle has to have some size
somewhere.
In the Rams case- for 2018- I think they're better off upgrading at NT than trying to replace Barron. When Brockers was (smartly) moved to DE trying to combine Westbrooks and Smart at NT was their best option and obviously that's not what you want at that spot. Now they may very well come across a quality ILB in the Draft. Some have speculated someone like Jewell from Iowa in the 3rd round. But Barron's cap number comes down a bit in 2018 and then in 2019 he's that much easier to release if they want. Adding a bigger, situational NT to occupy space in front of Ogletree and Barron seems like the more logical and easier path to me.
Like with Trumaine Johnson, this could also be a case of what Phillips thinks. Maybe he kept and played Barron at ILB because it was prohibitive to move on from him last year contract-wise and they made the best of it. But I don't think so. Is Littleton ready to take over? he only weighs about 10 lbs more than Barron.
I think a quality, big-bodied NT that can play ~35 snaps per game would make a big, big difference.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2018 03:24AM by LMU93.
