Ram Tough: The Long History of Unhappy LBs, Money, Injuries and Departures

By John Turney

When the Rams traded LB Ernest Jones to Tennessee, fans were surprised. They shouldn't have been. It's been their history.

Earlier this week, Los Angeles Rams' fans saw something that caught most of them by surprise: According to ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, Rams' inside linebacker Ernest Jones had been given permission to seek a trade. They knew Jones was in the final year of his rookie contract and that, because the Rams historically haven't valued the inside-linebacker position. he'd likely go elsewhere to find the money he wanted. 

But now? No way. Conventional wisdom said that 2024 was going to be his audition for a life-changing contract.

Conventional wisdom was wrong.

Two days later after the ESPN report aired, Jones was traded to Tennessee, along with a 2026 sixth-round draft choice, for a 2026 fifth-round pick.  That's not much for a linebacker whom Pro Football Focus ranked as the NFL's seventh-best at his position, contract year or not.

Not only was it a surprise to fans; it was a surprise to Jones, who said he expected to be with the Rams this year. But that didn't happen, and maybe it had something to do with a problematic knee that caused him to miss practice or perhaps he irritated coach Sean McVay. No one knows, including Jones.

What is known, however, is that it's not the first time the Rams have let quality linebackers go, either by not signing them as free agents or, as here, trading them away. There's a history there, so let's take a look.

Perhaps the first notable exit was by Larry Morris. a two-way player who was a good fullback and an even better linebacker. The Rams chose him in the first round of the 1955 draft, but he couldn't stay healthy. So, they gave up and traded him to Washington for the rights to Gene Brito.

Larry Morris

So what happened? Brito was injured in 1959, had a very good year in 1960, then fell ill with a muscle degenerative disease that eventually caused his death. Meanwhile, Morris couldn't come to an agreement with Washington owner George Preston Marshall, so he was shipped to the Chicago Bears. where he excelled. He became the most valuable player of the 1963 NFL championship game and respected enough that Hall-of-Fame voters named him to the NFL 1960's all-decade team.

Then, in 1971 George Allen, who coached the Rams from 1966-70, became Washington's new coach and wanted a pile of his former players. So he engineered a trade with the Rams that sent a linebacker to Los Angeles plus seven draft picks for linebackers Maxie Baughan, Jack Pardee and Myron Pottios, plus defensive tackle Diron Talbert, guard John Wilbur, running back Jeff Jordan and a draft pick.

The 35-year-old Pardee had been the Rams' left linebacker, and he played well in 1971 (five interceptions, All-NFC) and OK in 1972 before he retired. Middle linebacker Myron Pottios, who was 32, started for a year and parts of two more. He was experienced and smart but lacking in range. 

Jack Pardee

And then there was Baughan.

For five years he'd been the Rams' right linebacker, but after the trade he retired and didn't play for Washington. He hurt a foot, spent time on the taxi squad and injured reserve, then went into coaching. But four years later, when injuries depleted Washington's linebackers, he was called back after two years coaching at Georgia Tech. He joined Allen's staff in 1974, with Allen coaxing the 36-year-old to play if there were further injuries. But he contributed little in terms of trade value.

Now look what the Rams gained in return.

Marlin McKeever, the linebacker Washington included in the big trade, started two years for the Rams and was good in 1971 and, like Pardee in Washington, more like average in 1972. The real prize, though, was the player the Rams chose with the first-round pick they acquired: Isiah Robertson, who became one of the NFL's best outside linebackers and one of the best linebackers, period, in club history.

Eight years later, though, that all changed.

In 1978 Robertson, by then a six-time Pro Bowler, thought he was underpaid and made that clear to the Rams, the media and anyone else who would listen. In return, he was accused of not playing hard and dividing the team with his commentary on his contract. Eventually, he lost his starting job that season to second-year linebacker Bob Brudzinski and served only as a coverage specialist in passing situations. 

Isiah Robertson

The next spring the Rams remedied the situation by trading him to Buffalo, which welcomed him with a four-year $1 million contract, and Robertson responded with several good seasons, including 1980 when he played at a Pro Bowl level.

Now, back to Brudzinski. 

He played great in Robertson's place until he had contract problems of his own in 1980 when the process was repeated. But he didn't complain. He just up and left after midseason. You heard me. He walked out on the Rams and never played for them again.

The following year, they sent him to Miami on Draft Day in a complicated multi-pick deal that, in the end, netted them inside linebacker Jim Collins, who had several solid seasons. But it was George Andrews who replaced Brudzinski at right outside linebacker, and while he was good, he wasn't as good as Brudzinski. 

With the Dolphins, Brudzinski became one of the "Killer Bs" and was a solid, albeit unheralded, member of those defenses.

Winner? Loser? You tell me.

Bob Brudzinski

There was another Rams linebacker who departed in 1981. That was Jack "Hacksaw" Reynolds who'd been their starter at middle linebacker since 1973. However, the "book" on Hacksaw, who was going on 34 years old at the time, was that he was "too old, too slow and couldn't cover anybody" -- something that offended Reynolds so much that he had a T-shirt made with that on it.

Reynolds wanted a no-cut contract for more money than the Rams were willing to offer for someone they thought was declining in skills. 

But was he? 

The San Francisco 49ers didn't think so. They signed him and all he did in the Bay Area was start for the Niners for four seasons and help them win two Super Bowls - -something the Rams would not do until nearly two decades later.

Jack Reynolds

But the most costly offload of a linebacker in Rams' history happened in 2002 when middle linebacker London Fletcher became a free agent, and the Rams let him walk ... to Buffalo, where the Bills gave him a five-year, $17.1-million blockbuster deal.

Meanwhile, the Rams replaced him with a middle linebacker named Jamie Duncan who played for Tampa Bay, which is significant to the story. The Rams' defensive coach was Lovie Smith, and he'd brought the so-called Tampa-2 defense with him when he went to the Rams the year before. But he did more than that. He convinced the team's front office that Duncan could replace Fletcher and that Fletcher would not be missed.

He was wrong. Fletcher's absence was felt.

The Rams lost one of the best linebackers they'd had in a long time, with Fletcher playing another 12 NFL seasons -- five in Buffalo and seven in Washington -- and playing so well that he deserves Hall-of-Fame consideration.

London Fletcher

Since then there have been a couple more linebackers the Rams let go, but none on the scale of the Fletcher misjudgment. In 2018, for instance, they traded away Alec Ogletree, their starting middle linebacker who was second-team All-Pro in 2016. Oddly, the Rams seemed to have liked him, giving him a four-year, $42.8 million extension in 2017.

But the following spring they shipped him to the Giants for two mid-round picks, and it's uncertain why. Maybe he didn't live up to expectations of the new Rams' regime, which included the newly-hired McVay. No one knows. What is certain is that Ogletree was one of the few at his position to gain top dollar from the Rams.

Alec Ogletree

He had a terrific initial season in New York, with five interceptions -- including two returned for touchdowns -- but his play eventually dropped off, and he bounced around to a couple of teams after that. In L.A., meanwhile, he wasn't missed. The Rams had special-teams standout Cory Littleton waiting, and coaches believed he was ready to start in their base defense. 

They were right. 

Littleton had two outstanding years as a starter (and continued to play top-level special teams), averaging 130 tackles, two interceptions and four sacks annually, and he did it more cheaply than Ogletree. But a couple years later, it was his turn to get paid -- to the tune of $35.2 million over three years (with $22 million guaranteed) -- but it wasn't with the Rams. It was with the Las Vegas Raiders, who signed him as a free agent.

Cory Littleton

However, Littleton was little more than adequate and, after failing to live up his contract, followed Ogletree's path and bounced around with others after the Raiders released him.

Then, two years later, in 2021, our story comes full circle when the Rams drafted Ernest Jones out of South Carolina. He became a starter at midseason of his rookie year, helped the Rams win the Super Bowl and remained a starter through 2023. 

So, what now?

Jones's replacement -- at least at the moment -- is Troy Reeder, and let's just say he's not a favorite in Los Angeles. He's been a part-time starter for the Rams the last several years (minus a year he played for the Chargers), and the results haven't been great. Nevertheless, Rams' coaches seem confident in him, which is all that matters. So he's the guy for now.

However, the eventual replacement for Jones could be a 2024 UDFA out of LSU named Omar Speights. He's been lights out so far-- with Pro Football Focus ranking him as the NFL's fourth-highest off-ball linebacker this preseason -- but he isn't the starter. Yet.

Time will tell, as it will for Ernest Jones in Tennessee. 

Ernest Jones

Will he go on and offer the Titans the kind of elite linebacking that London Fletcher brought to Buffalo in 2002, or will he fade into mediocrity, as Ogletree and Littleton did for the Giants and Raiders? Or, maybe, as we've witnessed, it will be somewhere in between.

No matter what happens, we know that what happened this week with Jones and the Rams shouldn't have surprised the club's fans. It's just the latest in a long history of a team's decisions that involve linebackers, injuries and money.