Rams Release Blake Countess

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Ed "Pi Double i" Henderson

On April 15th, the Los Angeles Rams and safety Blake Countess reached an agreement with his ERFA contract for $2M, and after the completion of the 2019 NFL Draft, after it was all said and done, the Rams would draft not one but two safeties. On May 2nd, the Rams waived Countess after he declined to accept a pay cut to remain with the team after selecting two safeties from the draft.

The Rams General Manager Les Snead traded back out of the first round by sending their  31st overall pick to the Atlanta Falcons for their second round 45th overall selection. Snead would initiate another move by trading back with the New England Patriots for exchange for their 56th and 101st overall picks. 

However, Snead wasn't done executing trades, as he would send that 56th pick to the Kansas City Chiefs in exchange for their 61st and 167th overall selections. With that 61st pick, the Rams would select Washington's safety Taylor Rapp as their first 2019 selection. The Rams would choose Penn State's special team phenom and safety Nick Scott in the seventh round adding yet another safety to the depth chart. 

At the beginning of free agency, the team signed veteran safety Eric Weddle to a two-year deal, and the team in addition to Countess has Marqui Christian, John Johnson III, and Steven Parker. It's not clear whether or not Countess was the only player to take a pay cut but its clear that he was not in favor of accepting.

Countess been with the team for the last two seasons as a prominent special teams player and also was named NFC Special Team Player of the Week last season after replacing injured JoJo Natson on kickoff returns. With the release of Countess, the Rams front office announced that if cleared waivers they would welcome him back, but that idea halted as the Philadelphia Eagles signed Countess at his same contract amount.

In a subsequent move, the Rams added second year linebacker Josh Carraway who spent time on both the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans practice squad.

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