The Los Angeles Rams succeeded in addressing their main area of concern by adding defensive end Dante Fowler ahead of the trade deadline. Fowler now faces the tough task of acclimating to his new team ahead of their upcoming game against the New Orleans Saints. But Sean McVay believes Fowler will be able to help right away.
“He passed his physical and he’s going to — really, today is more of a mental, kind of that above-the-neck approach on a Wednesday for us,” McVay said per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. “So, he’ll get exposed to a lot of reps. If he’s taking part in it or if he’s standing right there with [defensive line coach] Billy Johnson listening to some of the calls, the communication. But we anticipate him being able to be involved and kind of, really, we’ll see how he’s able to adjust, how he’s able to absorb that information. But we wanted to get him in here and hopeful that he’s a contributor for us as soon as this weekend against a tough team.”
The Rams have been in desperate search of more help on the edge as they've been highly reliant on Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh in supplying their pass rush. Of their 22 sacks thus far this season, only two have come from an edge rusher. Fowler figures to be a significant upgrade in that respect.
Even if Fowler isn’t going to be completely up to speed against the Saints, his mere presence will give New Orleans something else to think about. He’s at least another pass-rush threat who must be accounted for on the edge and will take some attention away from Donald and Suh.
That extra sprinkle of unpredictability that Fowler suddenly brings to the Rams defense could end up swinging this huge battle between two of the best teams in the NFC in their favor.
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