Rams’ 2025 Draft Check-In: Early sophomore spotlight on edge Terrance Ferguson

Los Angeles begins its ramp-up to training camp with a familiar question for second-year players, do the skills that looked promising at the draft translate to consistent snaps? In a draft-class check-in, Yahoo Sports framed the Rams’ 2025 haul as a group that now needs to show that it can carry meaningful workload as the team’s offseason priorities settle into camp habits.

The focus lands on the edge group, where Terrance Ferguson is positioned as a bet the Rams are making on the next step in production. Ferguson, selected as part of the 2025 class, enters his sophomore season with the expectation that he can contribute in an NFL role rather than simply learning systems and roles. In this stage of development, teams generally look for steadier gap discipline, more repeatable pass-rush moves, and the ability to win specific downs rather than flashes.

Just as important, Yahoo Sports’ check-in also points to Josaiah Stewart as an edge option expected to play a larger role. Stewart’s projected workload matters for the Rams because an edge rotation is rarely a two-person race. Even when one player is expected to be more prominent, the underlying value comes from creating multiple paths to pressure across the front seven, including early-down run defense and situational pass-rush reps.

The article’s context includes the Rams working through a roster landscape shaped by the broader edge market, explicitly referencing the impact of Myles Garrett being traded and how that changes the way the Rams view their own pass-rush depth. In other words, Ferguson and Stewart are not being evaluated in a vacuum. They are being judged against the team’s need to maintain pressure volume and versatility, regardless of what happens elsewhere in the league.

A sophomore-season evaluation is also different from a rookie-year one. In the NFL, second-year players tend to get clearer roles, more defined expectations from week to week, and more reps that are tied to game planning. That can be difficult because it requires both technique and decision-making. For an edge rusher, those decisions show up in the timing of rush angles, how quickly the player converts speed into contact, and the discipline to stay engaged when plays stretch or when blockers shift protection assignments.

For the Rams, camp is the proving ground for whether these two are moving from potential to reliability. The immediate storyline is whether Ferguson can establish himself as a consistent threat in the rotation, and whether Stewart truly earns increased responsibility at or near the top of the edge pecking order. The team’s early camp practices and preseason usage, while not a final verdict, usually offer the clearest public read on which players the staff trusts when games tighten.

As Los Angeles approaches the start of training camp in roughly a month, the most practical thing to watch is how the snaps are distributed among the edge group during team periods and in pass-rush periods. If Ferguson is getting concentrated reps in obvious passing situations, it suggests the Rams see him as more than a depth piece. If Stewart is paired with first-team looks and extended exposure, it indicates he is on track for the larger role the check-in highlights. Until the pads come on and the rotation becomes clearer, this remains an early-career appraisal, but one the Rams can ill afford to get wrong.