The Greatest Los Angeles Rams Players of All Time
To rank the Los Angeles Rams' greatest players is to judge 1960s pass rushers without official sack totals, which began in 1982. Every player here is named on at least 5 of the 14 Rams honor rolls and all-time rankings counted for this list: the team's honor roll (its retired numbers and its section of the former St. Louis Football Ring of Fame), the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and twelve press rankings. Players left off no more than five of the sources that could have named them start in the top group; everyone else who clears the door starts below them, and your votes set the order from there.
Eric Dickerson is #1 on “The Greatest Los Angeles Rams Players of All Time”.
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Eric Dickerson
On January 4, 1986, he ran for 248 yards against Dallas, a playoff record when he set it, and the Rams won 20-0. He carried the ball in Los Angeles from 1983 into 1987, until a deal involving 3 teams sent him to Indianapolis 3 games into that season. In between came 1,808 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns as a rookie, each of which set the NFL rookie record, and 2,105 yards in 1984, which beat O.J. Simpson's 2,003; nobody in the NFL has run for more in a season since. UPI chose him for its NFC offensive award for 1983 and 1984, then again for 1986. You'll find him on all 14 honor rolls and rankings counted here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Dickerson - 2
Marshall Faulk
Indianapolis let him go to St. Louis before the 1999 season for 2 draft picks, a price that looks absurd now, and he wore Rams colors through 2005. His first St. Louis season produced 2,429 scrimmage yards (1,381 rushing, 1,048 receiving), an NFL record in 1999, and no running back before him had gained that many receiving yards in a season. The 26 touchdowns he scored in 2000 set another league record, since broken. After each of the 1999, 2000 and 2001 seasons the AP handed him its offensive award. His name appears on 12 of the 14 sources in play here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Faulk - 3
Deacon Jones
A 14th-round pick, 186th overall in 1961, he gave the Rams 11 seasons at defensive end, through 1971. Sack totals from that era are unofficial; the team's media guides credit him with 22 in 14 games in 1964, 21.5 in 1967 and 22 again in 1968. His Rams years included 7 Pro Bowl seasons in a row, 1964 to 1970. With Merlin Olsen, Rosey Grier and Lamar Lundy he formed the Fearsome Foursome, and the Rams retired number 75 in 2009. Count him on 13 of the 14 honor rolls and rankings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deacon_Jones - 4
Merlin Olsen
On December 16, 1962, the last game of his rookie season, he intercepted a Green Bay pass and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown in a 20-17 Rams loss. The Rams used the 3rd pick of the 1962 draft on him, and in 15 years as a defensive tackle, through 1976, he missed 2 games all told. His 14 straight Pro Bowl selections, 1962 to 1975, were a record for their day. The Maxwell Football Club's Bert Bell Award, its pick for the league's best player, was his for 1974, a year after the NFLPA's NFC defensive lineman award. He turns up on 13 of the 14 lists and honor rolls counted here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_Olsen - 5
Aaron Donald
His pressure on Joe Burrow forced an incompletion on 4th-and-1 with under a minute left in Super Bowl LVI, sealing a 23-20 Rams win in which he had 2 sacks. The St. Louis Rams took him 13th in the 2014 draft; he retired in March 2024 and came back on August 30, 2026. He won the AP's defensive award 3 times in 4 seasons, for 2017, 2018 and 2020, and in 2018 his 20.5 sacks topped the league and broke the season mark for a defensive tackle. Of the 12 honor rolls and rankings open to him, 7 name him: Bleacher Report's June 2011 top 75 came before his first game, and he is not eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame while he is active.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Donald - 6
Kurt Warner
He threw for 414 yards against Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV, a Super Bowl high to that point, and his 73-yard touchdown pass with just over 2 minutes left put the Rams ahead 23-16, the final score. St. Louis had signed him to a future contract in December 1997, after night shifts stocking shelves at a Hy-Vee and 3 arena seasons with the Iowa Barnstormers, and he stayed a Ram through 2003. He sat 3rd on the depth chart in 1998 and got his chance in 1999 after a preseason ACL tear ended Trent Green's year; then came 41 touchdown passes, 4,353 yards and the AP's MVP award. 2001 brought a league-high 36 touchdown passes and 4,830 yards, plus a 2nd AP MVP award. All told, he's on 11 of the 14 counted for this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Warner - 7
Isaac Bruce
The 1995 season, the club's first in St. Louis, was his breakout: he caught 119 passes for 1,781 yards and scored on 13 of them. He ran routes for the Rams from 1994 through 2007. That yardage trailed Jerry Rice's 1,848 for 2nd in the NFL, and it gave him club season marks for catches, for receiving yards and for 100-yard games, of which he had 9, each a record for its day. In 2003 he passed Henry Ellard to become the franchise leader in career receiving yards. St. Louis released him in February 2008, then traded to get him back in June 2010 so he could retire as a Ram, and his number 80 was retired that same year. He comes in at 11 of the 14.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Bruce - 8
Jack Youngblood
Against the St. Louis Cardinals in a December 27, 1975 divisional playoff, he got past Dan Dierdorf, tipped a Jim Hart pass, caught it and took it 47 yards the other way to score; the Rams won 35-23. All 14 of his seasons, 1971 to 1984, were spent at defensive end in Los Angeles. UPI's NFC defensive award went to him for 1975 and 1976, and Pro Football Weekly's defensive lineman honor for 1975 was his as well. From 1973 he made 7 straight Pro Bowls, he played the 1979 playoffs and Super Bowl XIV on a fractured left fibula, and his streak of 201 consecutive games set a Rams record. Put his count at 11 of 14.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Youngblood - 9
Jackie Slater
In 1983, his 5th year as the starting right tackle, he made all 16 starts there and earned his first Pro Bowl trip. The Rams took him with the 86th choice in 1976, and he lasted 20 seasons, ending with 1995, when injuries held him to the club's first game in St. Louis's TWA Dome. His 259 games were a record for an offensive lineman when he retired. The NFLPA picked him as the NFC's best offensive lineman for 1983, 1986, 1987 and 1989, he made 7 Pro Bowls between 1983 and 1990, and the Rams retired his number 78. Of 14 sources, he appears on 10.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Slater - 10
Tom Mack
Don Chuy's injury in the 5th game of 1966 put the rookie guard into the lineup, and he started 9 games that season. From 1966 through 1978 he did not miss a game: 184 in a row, 176 of them starts. Los Angeles spent the 2nd selection of the 1966 draft on him, and 11 Pro Bowl nods came his way, each year from 1967 to 1975 and then 1977 and 1978. His Pro Football Hall of Fame class was 1999. Across the rankings and honor rolls, he picks up 9 of the 14.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Mack - 11
Elroy Hirsch
His 1951 numbers were 66 catches for 1,495 yards and 17 touchdown catches, matching Don Hutson's 1942 record for scoring catches, and the Rams won the league title. The Rams had held his NFL rights since drafting him in 1945; he signed in July 1949 after a bidding war with the Hornets, coach Clark Shaughnessy turned him into an end, and his Rams career ran through 1957. Those 1,495 yards were a single-season record at the time, as were his 124.6 yards a game, and United Press and the AP each put him on their 1951 All-Pro first teams. The nickname Crazylegs came from the way his legs twisted when he ran. He's named on 8 of the 14 counted here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elroy_Hirsch - 12
Orlando Pace
In 2000 he started all 16 regular-season games and a playoff game at left tackle, and he wasn't penalized for holding all season. The day before the 1997 draft the Rams traded with the Jets for the No. 1 pick, used it on him, and then waited out a 3-week holdout; he held the Rams' left tackle job through 2008. Every Pro Bowl from 1999 through 2005 had him at tackle, and he started every game of the 4 seasons from 1998 to 2001. St. Louis cut him in March 2009 to save cap space, and he spent 2009 with Chicago. In 2016, the 2nd year he was eligible, he got into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and his name is on 8 of the 14 counted for this list.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_Pace - 13
Norm Van Brocklin
On opening night, September 28, 1951, he passed for 554 yards against the New York Yanks, 27 completions in 41 attempts with 5 touchdowns, and no NFL passer has thrown for more in a game. He was a Ram from 1949 through 1957, splitting the quarterback job with Bob Waterfield from 1950, when coach Joe Stydahar began alternating them. League leads followed in passer rating in 1950, completion percentage in 1952 and passing yards in 1954, and 1950 through 1955 brought him 6 Pro Bowl trips. In May 1958 he went to Philadelphia in a deal that brought the Rams 2 players plus a 1st-round choice. All told, 7 of the 14 list him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norm_Van_Brocklin - 14
Torry Holt
St. Louis drafted him in 1999, 6th overall, and through 2008 he caught passes as a Ram. His 117 catches and 1,696 receiving yards in 2003 were both NFL highs. From 2000 to 2005 he put up 6 straight seasons of 1,300 yards or more, a league-record streak at the time, beginning with a league-leading 1,635 yards at 19.9 a catch in 2000. Counting a 2009 season in Jacksonville, his 12,594 receiving yards in the 2000s were the most any player gained that decade, and each of his 7 Pro Bowls was earned as a Ram. He's on 6 of the 14 weighed here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torry_Holt - 15
Bob Waterfield
December 16, 1945, in below-zero cold in Cleveland, he threw both Rams touchdown passes, of 37 and 44 yards, in a 15-14 title-game win over Washington, and his punts kept Washington pinned deep. That rookie year began 8 Rams seasons, through 1952; the Rams had picked him in round 5 of the 1944 draft, and in 1945 a panel of sportswriters made him the first unanimous pick for the Joe F. Carr Trophy as NFL MVP. His touchdown passes led the NFL in 1945 and 1946, either side of the move west, and his passer rating led it for the 1951 champions. When he quit he owned the league's career records for extra points, 315, and field goals, 60, and the club took number 7 out of use in 1952. You'll find him on 5 of the 14 used here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Waterfield - 16
Tom Fears
The 1951 NFL Championship Game was tied 17-17 in the final quarter when Norm Van Brocklin threw to him and he turned the catch into a 73-yard touchdown, the winning score in a 24-17 defeat of the Browns. Drafted in 1945, he played split end for the Rams from 1948 to 1956. 1948, 1949 and 1950 each ended with nobody in the league ahead of him in catches, and his 77 in 1949 set a league season record, which he pushed to 84 the next year; on December 3, 1950, his 18 catches against Green Bay were a single-game record at the time. Against the Chicago Bears in the 1950 playoff he caught 3 touchdown passes. Of the 14 consulted, he's on 6, the Pro Football Hall of Fame among them since his 1970 induction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Fears - 17
Kevin Greene
Picked 113th overall in 1985, he got his first sack in that season's divisional playoff win over Dallas and stayed with the Rams through 1992. In the 1988 finale at San Francisco the Rams needed a win to reach the playoffs, and he sacked Joe Montana 4.5 times in a 38-16 victory. Reggie White beat his 16.5 sacks for the 1988 league lead, and another 16.5 in 1989 came with his first Pro Bowl. Counting Pittsburgh, where he went in 1993, the first year of free agency, and the teams after it, his 160 career sacks ranked 3rd in NFL history when he retired. In all, 6 of the 14 lists and honor rolls name him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Greene - 18
Les Richter
Los Angeles got him in a trade with the Dallas Texans that sent 11 players the other way, and after 2 years in the Army during the Korean War he played for the Rams from 1954 through 1962 without missing a game. Art Hunter's injury in 1962 moved him to center for that final season, after 8 years as a Rams linebacker. Pro Bowl selection came 8 years running, 1954 to 1961, and he kicked as well, scoring 193 points on 29 field goals and 106 extra points; in 1955 he made 13 field goals on a league-high 24 attempts, plus 30 of 31 extra points. From 1959 he also managed Riverside International Raceway, and in 2011 the Pro Football Hall of Fame inducted him. Count 6 of the 14 for him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Richter - 19
Jack Snow
Minnesota made him the 8th pick of the 1965 draft and soon dealt him to Los Angeles, where he started as a rookie and stayed through 1975. On October 15, 1967, against the Baltimore Colts, he caught touchdown passes of 53 and 80 yards, and that season brought 28 catches for 735 yards and 8 touchdowns, an average of 26.3 yards a catch, his career high. With the Rams he totaled 340 catches, 6,012 yards and 45 touchdowns over 150 games. He joined the club's radio broadcasts as an analyst in 1992 and kept at it after the move to St. Louis, until November 2005; 5 of the 14 sources counted for this list include him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Snow_(American_football)
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