Rams Star Makes Concerning Comments on Future With Team

The Los Angeles Rams defense will enter into a new era of football after superstar and future Hall of Famer defensive tackle Aaron Donald officially announced his retirement this offseason.

The Rams will look for a new leader and voice to step up this season as they are a relatively young unit that exceeded expectations in 2023. One potential candidate is standout linebacker Ernest Jones, who was outstanding last season for Los Angeles.

The 24-year-old defender isn’t a household name yet, but Rams fans know who he is after the year he put together. The 6-foot-2 linebacker recorded career-highs across the board with 145 combined tackles, 14 tackles for loss, six quarterback hits, six pass deflections, and 4.5 sacks.

It was the second straight season that Jones had 100-plus total tackles. The former third-round pick is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2025.

The Rams would be smart to lock Jones into a long-term contract extension, especially at his age and production. However, that hasn’t happened yet despite Jones recently telling Adam Grosbard of The Orange County Register that he loves LA. But at the same time, the young linebacker knows it's a business at the end of the day.

"“I know that the work that I’ve put in these past three years, I know I’m worthy of something regardless what the worth may be,” Jones said. “I just want to put together a great year. I love to be in L.A., I really want to be here. This is truly where I want to keep my family at, grow my family here. But I also know that there’s a business side of it too that I can’t truly control. We’ll see. Hopefully we can get something done and I can be here for years to come. … And I’m up for the challenge.”"

At the NFL owners’ meeting in March, Rams general manager Les Snead suggested that Los Angeles wants the young linebacker to play out the last year of his contract.

“There’s always risk if a player plays well and goes to the market,” Snead said (h/t Gary Klein of the Los Angeles Times). “We felt like that it was better for us to use current resources on making additions to the current team.”

If Jones has another 100-plus tackle season and makes plays across the field, the Rams will have to open up their wallets because if not another team will. And we’ve seen across the NFL that finding a good young linebacker isn’t easy.

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