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The Rams have Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters at cornerback, Nickell Robey-Coleman at slot corner and John Johnson and Lamarcus Joyner at safety. Offensive coordinators and quarterbacks who face the Rams should be quaking at the thought.

“Not only the two corners, our two safeties are outstanding players and they can cover man to man,” Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said, via Myles Simmons of the team website. “So, it gives you so many possibilities to double cover somebody and put the pressure on one of those guys to cover his guy by himself.”

Phillips started Talib and Chris Harris at corner and T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart at safety in the Broncos’ Super Bowl victory over the Panthers. On paper, the Rams secondary looks even better.

With a defensive line featuring Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh, Phillips will have plenty of options to attack offenses.

“[I]t opens up a lot of things for you to play,” Phillips said. “I mean, I can think of a lot of things to play, but I haven’t always had the players to play those coverages and so forth, and these guys can. So we’ve got a lot of versatility there and we can put pressure, we can match up guys. Both corners can play both sides, either side. And Robey’s a tremendous nickel-inside player, and the two safeties are outstanding.”

The Rams finished 13th in pass defense last season. They expect to be even better this season.

“I’d be surprised,” Phillips said, “if we weren’t really good on pass defense.”