The Los Angeles Rams took an enormous leap forward in 2017, and to further that success in 2018 they are going all-in on a defense more suited to Wade Phillips, the team’s renowned defensive coordinator. Combined with an already-impressive offense, the team’s personnel moves could push the Rams from a nice story to one of the N.F.L.’s best teams.

First, the Rams added Marcus Peters, a Pro Bowl cornerback, in a trade with Kansas City that was agreed to last month. Then they traded away Robert Quinn and Alec Ogletree, mainstays of the defense in recent years. And now, according to multiple media reports, the Rams will reunite Phillips with one of his favorite players from his dominant tenure with the Denver Broncos: the All-Pro cornerback Aqib Talib.

The moves — with more sure to come when free agency begins next week — show a commitment to embracing the defensive philosophies of Phillips. His signature 3-4 defense that propelled Denver to victory in Super Bowl 50 thrived, in part, because the front-seven was able to rely on superb coverage by the team’s cornerbacks. While Talib, at 32, may have lost a step compared when he was with Denver three years ago, he is still more than capable of thriving on the same field as an elite player like the 25-year-old Peters.