The Rams brought in a new cornerback on Monday.
They announced the signing of Zech McPhearson to their 90-man roster. They did not need to make a corresponding move to bring McPhearson on board.
McPhearson entered the league as a fourth-round pick in Philadelphia in 2021. He played in 34 regular season games and four playoff contests over his first two seasons, but tore his Achilles ahead of the 2023 season. He spent the 2024 season on the practice squad with the Jaguars and was cut by Jacksonville last August.
McPhearson had 32 tackles, a sack and two passes defensed during his 38 appearances for the Eagles.
Rams Clips
Aaron Donald continues to ponder whether he’ll return to football after two years of retirement. And his play-or-don’t-play decision is indeed coming soon.
But apparently not quite as soon as recently expected.
Donald’s target, we’re told, has shifted from early this week to the end of this week. (Given the ramifications of a decision to return, Donald could take a little more time before making the decision to take the pigskin plunge.)
The Rams have plenty of time to get Donald ready to go. They’d deploy the same plan utilized in 2017 and 2018 to ramp him up after protracted contract holdouts. The Rams would want Donald to have a few weeks of football activities before playing, with the goal of 30-40 snaps in the Week 1 game against the 49ers in Australia.
Unless Donald’s workouts include the equivalent of football sparring sessions, he won’t know how he moves in relation to other players until he’s back on the practice field.
Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor retired after realizing that the younger players seemed to be getting faster. His coach, Bill Parcells, told Taylor that he was getting slower. Unless and until Donald is practicing against other players, he won’t be able to make that assessment. And that’s an important factor, because Aaron Donald wants to be sure that he’ll still be the Aaron Donald of old.
Still, Donald currently seems to be planning to make the decision on whether to play before officially rejoining the Rams and participating in practice. And he’ll be taking a bit more time to make that call.
It remains hard to envision Donald putting in so much work only to not play. Until he decides to do it, however, there’s a chance he’ll decide not to do it.
Myles Garrett missed some time at Rams training camp due to lower body soreness, but he’s been back on the field in recent days and it sounds like he’s in fine form.
Defensive lineman Braden Fiske will be lining up on the same front as Garrett and it has not taken long for him to come to the conclusion that the two-time defensive player of the year moves differently than most players. Fiske said the key for the team is now to integrate Garrett into a group that also includes Kobie Turner and Byron Young.
“Not all men are created equal, that’s for sure,” Fiske said, via the team’s website. “He’s a baller, no doubt. He’s getting a slide, there’s no doubt about that. Trying to work off him or vice versa, communicating. The biggest thing right now is working on our communication of how to rush together, how we’re going to attack certain looks. As all four, the certain looks that we’re going to get when he’s on the field, preparing for that and doing our best to work off each other. It’s been good so far though. I think we’re making strides.”
The defensive front could welcome another big piece in the near future. Aaron Donald is expected to make a decision on coming back soon and the Rams will have to do a little more recalibrating for another player who would fit Fiske’s feelings about the equality of defensive linemen.
As the Rams prepare for the first of their three preseason games, coach Sean McVay has made a decision as to whether one of his top backup quarterbacks will play. As to the other, McVay has not.
McVay told reporters on Saturday that rookie first-rounder Ty Simpson “definitely” will play.
As to veteran Stetson Bennett, McVay said this: “I haven’t decided on Stetson yet.”
If Bennett doesn’t play, the 12 quarters of preseason reps will be handled by Simpson and Matthew Caldwell, an undrafted rookie who finished his college career at Texas.
Bennett, 28, was a fourth-round pick in the 2023 draft. He has yet to make a regular-season appearance for the Rams.
Eventually, McVay will have to decide whether Simpson or Bennett (or, in theory, Caldwell) will serve as the No. 2 quarterback behind 2025 NFL MVP Matthew Stafford. The decision surely will be influenced by Simpson’s performance in the preseason.
Depending on how things go, the Rams may need to revisit the possibility of persuading Jimmy Garoppolo, who is open to playing in 2026, to serve as Stafford’s understudy for a third straight season. McVay may not know for sure until after the third preseason game.
The Rams have added a defensive lineman.
No, not that one.
Los Angeles announced the club has signed defensive end Daniel Rickert on Friday.
Rickert enters the league as an undrafted free agent out of Virginia. He spent last season there after five with Tennessee Tech.
In 14 games in 2025, he tallied 6.5 sacks. He totaled 25.5 sacks in his 57-game collegiate career.
On most topics raised during a press conference, Rams coach Sean McVay is willing to provide reporters with an answer. On the subject of his team’s travel plans to Australia for a Week 1 game against the 49ers, he is not.
Amid reports that the Rams will barnstorm in and out of Melbourne, arriving the day before the game and exiting the day after, McVay opted not to go there on Thursday.
The transcript from the team, which usually consists of a summary of each question before McVay’s full answer, included the full question-and-answer exchange as to whether the Rams have finalized their plans for Australia.
McVay: “Yeah, but I’d rather just keep it in-house.”
Reporter: “Why?”
McVay: “What’s the reason to talk about it, you know? Honestly, I would respectfully just say we have, but I’d prefer not to talk about it.”
Reporter: “Is it a strategic thing?”
McVay: “I just don’t want to talk about it. What does it matter?”
Reporter: “Well, fans, I think, are curious.”
McVay: “We won’t be there long enough for the fans to really have any curiosity about it.”
Reporter: “You guys have taken different ways of doing it compared to a lot of NFL teams. Last year, you went to London, very short turnaround, played very well against the Jaguars. This is a longer trip, and are you going to do something similar or are you going to give yourself more runway?”
McVay: “Yeah, I’d rather not talk about it.”
McVay’s comment regarding not being there long enough for the fans to have curiosity seems to confirm that it will indeed be a short trip.
Surely, McVay has a reason for not elaborating. Maybe he hasn’t had a chance to fully explain it to the players. Maybe some of them are grumbling about it, and he needs to get them to buy in before he takes it public.
Regardless, McVay likely didn’t decide randomly to not address one specific subject. And it’s not as if the Rams will be able to conceal their ultimate itinerary. Everyone will know when they fly to Australia, and everyone will know when they return to L.A.
Get ready for a potential Michael Jordan-style press release.
As retired defensive tackle Aaron Donald continues to work his way back into football shape, a decision regarding his potential return could happen in the coming days, per a source with knowledge of the situation.
Donald’s goal is to find out whether he can get back to being Aaron Donald again, the dominant, three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year who has already done more than enough to be a no-brainer first-ballot Hall of Famer.
If he decides to return, the Rams would ramp him up the same way they did when he missed all of training camp in 2017 and 2018, due to a holdout. The goal will be to get him on the field to engage in football activities in a team setting a few weeks before playing in a game.
And if Donald does indeed emerge from retirement, the Rams would take him to Australia for the Week 1 game against the 49ers — with a goal, we’re told, of having him on the field for 30-40 snaps.
On the surface, Rams receiver Puka Nacua isn’t clamoring aggressively for a new contract. With a new contract inevitable, Nacua has made some changes behind the scenes.
Nacua has switched agents in advance of something other than the non-negotiable, slotted deal he signed as a fifth-round pick in 2023.
“I did change agencies I think it was something for me, looking at the offseason and where I feel like I’ve been at in this past year,” Nacua told reporters on Wednesday. “Trying to reset and be able to refocus and reprioritize some of the things that I feel like are best for me. I’m grateful to feel like I have a team supporting me in all facets.”
Nacua will make $5.767 million in 2026. Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, drafted the same year as Nacua, set a new bar at $42.15 million in new-money APY earlier this year.
Nacua’s off-field situation does indeed complicate things. The lawsuit alleging that he bit a woman on New Year’s Eve could, in theory, spark a suspension — especially if he enters a diversion program in lieu of a possible prosecution.
A new deal done before that would have to account for a possible suspension, since suspensions typically void any remaining guarantees. Nacua’s camp would want a carve-out for that incident. The Rams, in turn, may want to pay him less in order to get it.
Regardless, he’s grossly underpaid for 2026. And he’s risking every day the kind of injury that would delay a second contract indefinitely.
All signs continue to point to a potential return to the Rams by defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who retired after the 2023 season.
Everyone on the outside is thinking about what it would mean for the team. Folks on the inside are thinking about it, too.
“Obviously, I’d be really excited about that,” defensive coordinator Chris Shula told reporters on Wednesday regarding the possibility of Donald coming back. “You’re getting one of the best players of all time. I’ve had a great history with him. I was here in ’17, coaching other positions with him. I know what a great guy he is, what a hard worker he is, and what he would mean to this defense. But at the same time, we’re going to coach the guys who are here and if he decides to come back, that’d be great.”
Donald took the next step earlier this week, with a “tryout” during (we’re told) a day off for players at training camp. Shula wasn’t present for the session that was far less about evaluating Donald and much more about Donald seeing how he felt — with the goal of finding out if he can get back to being the great player he was.
What made him so great?
“I think it’s when you have the extreme talent and you have the work ethic to match, and the mentality to be great every single day,” Shula said. “When you put all that together, that’s what you get. You get one of the greatest of all time.”
It has Shula very much aware of potentially pairing Donald with Myles Garrett.
“I think I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it a little bit,” Shula said. “You’re anticipating, but at the same time, we’re putting it in the core of our defense right now. We’re building our defense step by step. If he decides to come, whenever that is, that’s not going to affect exactly how we’re doing it right now.”
If he returns, it will affect everything. Most importantly, it will throw opposing offenses for a loop as they try to figure out how to deploy blockers to slow down two of the all-time best defensive players to ever put on a helmet.
Nerves were a bit frayed among Rams fans in recent days, with defensive end Myles Garrett missing four practices due to back soreness. He’s now back.
“I feel good,” Garrett told reporters on Wednesday. “I’m allowed to get sore. I’m a little old.”
He was asked if he has missed practice due to soreness in the past, or whether this is a new dynamic.
“I don’t think it’s happened every training camp, but every now and then I get a bump or bruise,” Garrett said. “They’re just trying to make sure I get back to 100 percent.”
So, obviously, he was recently less than 100 percent. It sounds as if he’s close to being back there.
They’ve got time, both to get him ready and to get and keep him healthy. The first game of the season is a full five weeks away.
