The Los Angeles Rams face off with the Carolina Panthers in week 1 of the regular season. According to Cameron DaSilva of TheRamsWire.com, it appears they'll have cornerback Aqib Talib in that game.

Aqib Talib has been dealing with a hamstring issue for a little while now, and he still isn't fully recovered. However, he'll apparently be ready for week 1 and that's the big story here.

The Los Angeles Rams already have a pretty solid cornerback group. With Marcus Peters and Nickell Robey-Coleman they've got some solid star power. Add in safety John Johnson III and you've got yourself a great secondary. However, it's Aqib Talib that is the veteran leader.

Even if he's lost a step in his game, Talib is one of the smartest cornerbacks in the NFL. He's physical and fearless. He won't back down from a receiver and can read a route and a quarterback's eyes very well.

Due to that, he's always going to bring a lot of value to a team. It makes him extremely important to a Rams defense that already has so much talent, you'd think it would be weird for them to be missing one cornerback who's arguably their third-best at this point in his career.

However, that's where they are. They need that veteran presence – and let's not forget the dude can still ball. Although he struggled a little bit last year, injuries played a large part in that. Talib is just one year removed being considered one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. There's no reason to believe he can't get back to that level.

For now though, he still needs to work to get ready for Week 1 of the regular season. Although the story right now is that he'll be ready, it also states that he's still not 100%.

Aqib Talib needs to focus on getting healthy because it would be detrimental to the Los Angeles Rams' 2019 season if he missed significant time due to rushing back from a hamstring issue.