Rams’ linebacker questions linger after Nate Landman’s uneven 2025 stretch

The Los Angeles Rams entered 2025 with linebacker Nate Landman on a one-year path, and by November the organization had seen enough to extend him for three additional years. That decision reflects a franchise approach that has not traditionally leaned heavily on linebacker investment, at least relative to its spending priorities elsewhere. Still, the lingering question for the Rams this offseason is simple: can Landman, and by extension the group around him, get back to early-season form after a late-season falloff?

Landman’s 2025 looked like two different seasons. Yahoo Sports described him as starting hot, then fading as the year went on. That pattern matters because linebackers often carry responsibility that is both physical and mental, with roles shaped by opponent tendencies, coverage shells, and changing game plans week to week. When production declines after a promising opening stretch, it typically raises questions about matchups, usage, and whether adjustments made midseason are translating into consistent impact.

The Rams, in choosing to move from a one-year deal to a multi-year extension, effectively bet on Landman as a stabilizing piece. The bet was not only about baseline ability, but also about reliability across a full season. In a league where roles can shift as offenses and defenses evolve, the concern is whether the early peak was a sustainable baseline or a temporary alignment of scheme, opponent matchups, and opportunity.

From a roster-building standpoint, the Rams’ willingness to keep Landman is notable. The Yahoo Sports framing is that the team is not usually a heavy spender at linebacker, which makes the extension a clear report that Los Angeles values what Landman brings beyond box-score production. Those qualities could include communication in the middle, run fits, and the ability to process offenses quickly. But when you pay a linebacker, the expectation is that he performs at a high level across the entire season, not only in the opening months.

The linebacker group’s return to “early-season form,” as Yahoo Sports put it, also affects how the Rams can structure the rest of their defense. If Landman is playing at his best, Los Angeles can build around his reads and responsibilities, potentially allowing other players to take cleaner assignments or handle more specialized roles. If he is not, defensive coordinators often have to do more work to cover for communication breakdowns or missed reads, particularly against offenses that attack the middle of the field and manipulate linebackers with motion and play-action.

Because the supporting material here focuses on Landman’s 2025 arc rather than specific statistical thresholds or snap-by-snap breakdowns, it is worth being careful about the conclusions. The reported issue is a shift from early-season impact to a less productive period later in the year, and the reasons can range from opponents adjusting to the Rams, to changes in how Los Angeles called its defense, to the natural variance of an 18-week schedule. Without additional official data or a detailed performance audit in the available text, the most defensible takeaway is that the Rams will be evaluating whether the earlier version of Landman is the truer baseline.

What to watch next is how the Rams describe his role and how quickly the linebacker group establishes consistency. Even without changing the schematic foundation, teams can tighten execution through emphasis on specific assignment triggers, coverage landmarks, and run-fit rules. The goal for Los Angeles is not simply to improve, but to eliminate the volatility that showed up after Landman’s early burst in 2025. If the Rams can answer that question convincingly, the extension they made last November will look less like a calculated gamble and more like a straight-line bet on a key defensive identity.