Not long into the offseason, the Los Angeles Rams made it clear they’d be remaking the depth chart at outside linebacker. Not only did they trade away their best edge rusher, Robert Quinn, but they also allowed Connor Barwin to leave in free agency without much resistance.

That left Samson Ebukam and Matt Longacre as the top players at outside linebacker, which doesn’t exactly excite many people. The Rams are clearly high on both players, especially after waiting until the fifth round to draft a true edge rusher.

As it turns out, they have a handful of players who will compete for first-team reps at outside linebacker, especially with Morgan Fox and Ogbonnia Okoronkwo sidelined due to injury. The Rams’ last pick in the 2018 draft is already seeing time with the starters in OTAs, which is a bit surprising.

Justin Lawler took first-team reps at Sam linebacker on Tuesday, despite many believing he’d primarily play defensive end. Sean McVay shed some light on the rookie rising up the depth chart in practice.

“You look at Justin Lawler getting a chance to take some Sam linebacker reps with some of those top guys and he’s flashed some really good things,” McVay said after practice. “And we’re looking forward to seeing really a lot of guys grow, but specifically, he’s gotten some chances and he’s made the most of those.”

Lawler is a long pass rusher at 6-foot-4, 262 pounds with long arms and good strength. He’s not the most athletic player and lacks pass-rush technique at this point in his career, but he was a productive player at SMU. Just last season, he recorded 74 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks.

One of his best traits, however, is his ability to block kicks. He got his hands on three kicks last season alone, which is a pretty staggering number in just 12 games.

Whether he sticks with the first-team defense throughout OTAs and into mandatory minicamp remains to be seen, but the fact that he’s already risen to this point after just one week of practices is mighty impressive. He’s someone McVay seems to like a lot.