The 2026 NFL season is here, and we have updated our Pre-Season Football Monitor.

As we have expanded our projects, we can’t say we've expanded the team behind the scenes!  As a result, we are a little behind on this one, and we could only post the top 50 of the Pre-Season Monitor at this time.

We will add more during the season (and yes, we know that defeats the purpose of pre-season), but thank you for your patience.

We have unveiled the Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Tight Ends, Offensive Linemen, Defensive Linemen/Linebackers/Pass Rushers/EDGE, and we conclude with Defensive Backs: The Cornerbacks and Safeties.

They are:

#1 CB, #1 Overall: Jalen Ramsey, Pittsburgh Steelers, #20 Last Year.

#1 S, #24 Overall: Budda Baker, Arizona Cardinals, #28 Last Year.

#2 S, #28 Overall: Harrison Smith, Minnesota Vikings, #38 Last Year.

#3 S, #44 Overall: Minkah Fitzpatrick, New York Jets, #43 Last Year

Look for more updates soon!

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team. That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity. As such, we are very happy to present our post 2022 revision of our top 50 Los Angeles Rams.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following:

1. Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the National Football League.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Two years ago, the Rams won it all, but last year they were unable to make it to a winning record. They still had one elevation and one new entrant based on last season.

As always, we present our top five, which did not change.

1. Merlin Olsen

2. Aaron Donald

3. Deacon Jones

4. Jack Youngblood

5. Orlando Pace

You can find the entire list here.

Aaron Donald, who came last year at #2 remains there, but we were very close in placing him over Merlin Olsen. This could likely change in 12 months.

Wide Receiver, Cooper Kupp, who was the Super Bowl MVP and Offensive Player of the Year in 2021, advanced six rungs to #31.

The only new entry is Jalen Ramsey, the Cornerback who is now with the Miami Dolphins. He enters at #49.

We welcome your input and comments and as always, we thank you for your support.

When people talk about how the Rams won Super Bowl LVI, the Matthew Stafford trade usually gets the headlines. Fair enough. But the move that actually set everything in motion came a couple of years earlier, when they went out and got Jalen Ramsey in the middle of the 2019 season.

Ramsey had already established himself as one of the best young corners in the league after the Jaguars took him fifth overall in 2016. He made the Pro Bowl in 2017 and 2018 and looked like a franchise cornerstone. Then everything unraveled. After a heated sideline blowup with coach Doug Marrone that nearly turned physical, Ramsey demanded out. A few weeks later, the Jaguars shipped him to Los Angeles for two first-round picks and a fourth. He stepped right in, finished the year strong, and earned another Pro Bowl nod.

Over the next two seasons, he was as good as any cornerback in football. He earned back-to-back first-team All-Pro honors, and he was a central piece of the defense that finally got over the hump in Super Bowl LVI. At his peak, he was dangerous because of a rare combination of size, speed, and physicality with elite man-coverage instincts—he could erase a No. 1 receiver while still being a sure tackler who could slide inside or stay outside depending on the matchup. His peers noticed; they ranked him No. 9 on the NFL Top 100 heading into 2022. The Rams fell off hard that year, but Ramsey stayed excellent and made his sixth straight Pro Bowl.

After the season, Los Angeles moved him to the Miami Dolphins for a third-round pick and tight end Hunter Long. It was a short stay, but it was one of the best concentrated runs any defensive back has had in Rams history.

While wearing the horns, Ramsey had 10 interceptions with 242 tackles.

2025 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #20, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #23, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #35, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #54, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #73.

The Rams believed that Jalen Ramsey was the best Cornerback in the NFL, and they went all in to get him during the 2019 season when he was disgruntled in Jacksonville.  Ramsey was the top CB in 2020, adding a second First Team All-Pro, a fourth Pro Bowl, and posting a career-high in Approximate Value (15).  Currently, over the AV/G, Ramsey added another Pro Bowl, First Team All-Pro, and, more importantly, a Super Bowl in 2021, proving the Rams right.  Ramsey claimed a sixth Pro Bowl in 2022 and a seventh with his third team in Miami, which was impressive considering he only played ten games in 2023.

One knock on Ramsey is that he is now on his fourth team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he is still a good player, albeit in decline, and another Pro Bowl-caliber season is in doubt.  Nevertheless, we have him as the highest-ranked cornerback for this study, though is he on the level of some of the Corners we use as a baseline?  His peak was excellent, but when you look at our baseline CBs, it is a hard level to break.   

Ramsey might still need a lot more.

When Jacksonville selected Jalen Ramsey fifth overall out of Florida State in the 2016 NFL Draft, they were bringing in a consensus national champion and two-time All-American expected to instantly redefine their secondary. Ramsey met those towering expectations immediately, stepping onto the field with supreme swagger, elite physical coverage skills, and a willingness to tackle in space that earned him PFWA All-Rookie Team honors right out of the gate.

Ramsey quickly became the premier, vocal cornerstone of Jacksonville's formidable "Sacksonville" defense. His peak performance came during the historic 2017 campaign, when he erased opposing top receivers week after week, racking up 17 pass deflections and four interceptions—including a game-sealing interception late in the fourth quarter of the wild-card victory over Buffalo. That season earned him his first Pro Bowl selection and First-Team AP All-Pro honors while driving the Jaguars to the AFC Championship Game. He followed up with another Pro Bowl nod in 2018, routinely taking away half the field and asserting himself as arguably the best shutdown cornerback in professional football. However, his explosive tenure in North Florida collapsed early in the 2019 season following a heated sideline altercation with head coach Doug Marrone and a subsequent trade request. In October 2019, Jacksonville traded Ramsey to the Los Angeles Rams for a massive haul that included two first-round picks, and he later won Super Bowl LVI.

In Jacksonville, Ramsey had nine picks with 242 combined tackles.