Quentin Lake has become an invaluable piece of the Los Angeles Rams’ secondary. He went from playing sparingly as a rookie to taking on a bigger role in Year 2 to playing every snap in the first 16 games of last season as a team captain and the defensive signal caller wearing the green dot.
He may not be a turnover machine, forcing zero fumbles and picking off no passes in his career up to this point, but his impact goes way beyond the box score. There’s not much debate about him being the Rams’ best defensive back and if he continues to improve the way he has in the last three years, he’ll be a Pro Bowler at some point soon.
NFL coaches, executives and scouts ranked the top safeties in the league for ESPN but they left Lake off their list. He was in the “also receiving votes” category with six other players after the top 10 and five more honorable mentions, which technically puts him among the 22 best safeties in football.
He probably deserves to be ranked higher than that, though. Few other safeties wear the green dot for their teams and display the position flexibility that Lake has. He played 511 snaps in the slot last season, which was more than any other safety. He also played 398 snaps deep, 244 in the box and 48 snaps on the line of scrimmage.
In other words, Lake can line up just about anywhere and he’ll always be on the field. That doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but it makes the life of Chris Shula and Sean McVay much easier.
This time next year, Lake should be in the top 15, if not the top 10. Will that be with the Rams, though? This is the final year of his contract so it’s possible he’ll leave in free agency next offseason.
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This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams’ Quentin Lake ranked outside the top 15 safeties by NFL coaches and executives
Reporting by Cameron DaSilva, Rams Wire / Rams Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
