PFF spotlight highlights Rams standouts in final preseason look

The Los Angeles Rams finished their preseason with a victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday night, and Pro Football Focus used the finale to identify which players made their case when the margin for error is smallest. In PFF’s breakdown of “final preseason arguments,” the outlet highlighted Dean Connors, Ty Simpson and AJ Arcuri as three of the most notable names to leave positive impressions as roster decisions tightened.

PFF’s premise is straightforward: the end of the preseason is when coaches and evaluators typically pay closest attention to repeatable traits under game-speed conditions. For players on the fringes, that can mean consistently converting limited snaps into productive outcomes, or at least showing that mistakes are correctable rather than revealing a deeper problem. In that context, Connors, Simpson and Arcuri were grouped together by PFF as standouts from the Rams’ late work.

Dean Connors was one of the names PFF spotlighted, with the framing centered on maximizing a late window to build credibility. Ty Simpson received similar emphasis, again tied to the idea of showing enough in the last preseason performance to separate from the pack. PFF also pointed to AJ Arcuri as part of the same cluster of players who, in the outlet’s view, earned more favorable evaluations when the preseason wrapped.

The game itself mattered because preseason finales tend to compress playing time into shorter sequences and raise the value of execution. Even when the preseason is not the regular season, the competitive stakes are real for players fighting for spots, for depth roles, and for trust in specific packages. A win does not decide everything about a roster, but it can shape the way coaches assess who understands assignments and who can handle pressure without losing structure.

For Rams fans, the bigger takeaway is less about any one performance and more about what PFF’s grading exercise indicates about the team’s internal evaluation priorities. By singling out multiple players across a single “made the most of it” theme, PFF suggests that Los Angeles’s late-preseason reps produced several usable, coach-friendly impressions. That is exactly the kind of information teams try to collect before the season reduces the number of opportunities.

The limitation, as always with preseason award-style grading, is that PFF’s emphasis is based on the film and the grading system, not on final depth-chart outcomes. Without the specific grading numbers or play-by-play details in the available material, the safest interpretation is that these players were viewed more positively than their peers in the final preseason window, rather than that they have locked roles.

As the Rams move toward the regular season, the players highlighted by PFF will be worth watching for whether the “final arguments” translate into consistent opportunities in practice and in the early regular-season lineup. If the evaluations hold, they can become the kinds of depth contributors who stabilize rotations and broaden the team’s options, especially on game days when coaches rely on trust as much as talent.

For the Chargers, the same preseason finale also functions as a mirror: the players who struggled tend to absorb the coaching staff’s skepticism quickly, while those who can keep their technique clean get a clearer path forward. With PFF pointing to Rams players as late beneficiaries, it raises the question of whether Los Angeles’s preseason process is producing dependable football where it counts most. The next step is simple: see which of these impressions survives the regular-season snap counts.