NFL's most improved position groups that can swing the season, from Rams' CBs to Patriots' pass catchers and more
NFL's most improved position groups that can swing the season, from Rams' CBs to Patriots' pass catchers and more
Nate TiceFri, May 22, 2026 at 12:48 AM UTC
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1 / 0NFL's most improved position groups that can swing the season, from Rams' CBs to Patriots' pass catchers and more
An improved position group — and not just an outright offensive or defensive (or special teams!) unit — can help drive a team to the top. These improvements can pave the road to a Super Bowl championship, or at the very least keep the road smoother than it would have been otherwise.
Turning a weakness into a strength, or even into just something resembling average, can swing a season. Not giving opponents, especially playoff opponents, an advantage to pick at and hyperfixate on keeps a season alive and sometimes is the main reason for winning a football game. (Think of the Seahawks’ offensive line from 2024 to 2025, going from travesty to something resembling average as the season wore on.)
Let’s look at some of the moves, some big, some small, that can help swing the 2026 season.
We’ll start with one of the biggest moves of the offseason.
Rams cornerbacksChris Shula’s defense can maximize oddball personnel
The Rams sent their 2026 first-round pick for Trent McDuffie and then double dipped on former Chiefs cornerbacks when they signed Jaylen Watson in free agency. Los Angeles has made the most out of its oddball personnel under defensive coordinator Chris Shula, constantly blitzing and dropping defenders, moving players before and after the snap, and inverting roles in an attempt to confuse quarterbacks.
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Shula’s Rams blitz at a healthy clip, majoring in zone blitzes that attempt to trap the quarterback into making a bad decision after getting heated up. They also use simulated and creeper pressures at a high rate — defensive calls that “blitz” an off-ball defender but still only using four pass rushers because of another defender dropping from the line of scrimmage. With the constant switching of roles between cornerbacks, safeties and front seven players, versatility and intelligence can be attributes just as valuable as size, speed and sheer athleticism.
As well as cornerbacks have played under Shula, getting the most out of Day 3 selections like Cobie Durant and retreads like Emmanuel Forbes Jr. points to strong coaching and game-planning that maximized those players to the fullest.
The issue that the Rams ran into last season was when they just lost the straight talent battle against the league’s better wide receivers. Or “out-blue chipped” as my colleague Charles McDonald likes to say.
Where Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson fit into Rams’ scheme
This is where McDuffie and Watson come in. Not only are both talent upgrades, but McDuffie has All-Pro ability when playing in the slot and on the outside. And both have experience playing in a defense that likes to blitz and throw a lot of funk at quarterbacks and offensive lines under Steve Spagnuolo in Kansas City. The Chiefs and Rams both have similar rates of split coverage (i.e. running two different concepts on each side) over the past two seasons, with a similar rate of Cover 2, a common coverage call behind inverted or simulated looks to make quarterbacks think they’re getting heated up before catching them with a “softer” coverage look.
Source: “AOL Sports”
