Who is new Los Angeles Rams EDGE Dante Fowler? Q&A with Big Cat Country

The Los Angeles Rams finalized a trade for Jacksonville Jaguars EDGE Dante Fowler, Jr. right at the trade deadline. Fowler arrives to help shore up the Rams’ outside edge pressure joining Matt Longacre and Samson Ebukam as the primary options as rookie Ogbonnia Okoronkwo continues to progress in the window following his departure from the Physically Unable to Perform list.

So to get a better sense of who the Rams just added, I linked up with Alfie Crow from Big Cat Country, the SB Nation community for Jacksonville Jaguars fans.

What kind of player are the Rams getting in Fowler? What are his strengths and weaknesses on the field?

Fowler is a weird player that is probably better suited to playing outside linebacker rather than the weak side end position he played in Jacksonville. He’s a violent football player that plays really hard, but he’s more of a stiff type of straight line athlete and doesn’t really have any pass rush moves outside of a spin move that’s never really worked. If he can play in a roll where he’s moved around and given clear lanes to run, he will be more productive but he’s not going to create many sacks on his own.

What ultimately led the Jaguars to this trade? We heard of grumblings of locker room discord. Was that something that has followed Fowler since Year 1 or something more recent?

It was a combination of immaturity on/off the field and just lack of production. He was the third overall pick, unfortunately tore his ACL two weeks after the draft, and then was passed over by Yannick Ngakoue. He never found a clear cut role with the Jaguars and his lack of development/maturity made it easy for them to not pick up his option and eventually move on. It just didn’t seem like to would ever work out in Jacksonville, so they got value now as opposite to gambling on a compensatory pick. I wouldn’t worry too much about locker room issues.

Overall, what were your feelings on the compensation? Do you feel comfortable about the trade overall given what you got in return for his skill set and where the Jags are headed overall?

I was thrilled with the compensation. In fact, I was only expecting something in the range of a fourth round pick because he’s a free agent after 8 more games and he wasn’t exactly having a good season. It was clear the Jaguars were planning to move on from him after the declined his option.

Thanks to Alfie for the time.