cornerback

The Rams traded for cornerback Roger McCreary, star receiver Puka Nacua is expected to return for Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints and receiver Tutu Atwell will spend at least four games on injured reserve.

All of those moves were announced by the Rams or discussed by coach Sean McVay on Monday as the Rams returned from an off week.

With the NFL trade deadline approaching next week, the Rams acquired McCreary, 25, and a conditional 2026 sixth-round pick from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a conditional 2026 fifth-round pick.

McCreary, a 2022 second-round pick from Auburn, has three career interceptions, including one this season. He is expected to provide depth to a cornerback group that lost Ahkello Witherspoon early in the season because of a broken collarbone. Witherspoon, who has been doing some individual work, was expected to be sidelined 12 weeks.

McVay said veteran Darious Williams also suffered a shoulder injury in the Rams’ Oct. 19 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

So McCreary, who is in the final year of his rookie contract, could fortify a position group that includes Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. Safety Quentin Lake has played as a slot cornerback and hybrid linebacker.

The Rams played against McCreary and the Titans in Week 2.

“We were looking to be able to add some depth,” McVay said, according to a transcript of a videoconference with reporters. “He was a guy that we respected from playing against him earlier this year.”

Nacua sat out against the Jaguars because of a high ankle sprain he suffered during an Oct. 12 victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua catches a pass against the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 12.

(Terrance Williams / Associated Press)

McVay said he expected that Nacua would practice this week and play against the Saints.

Nacua ranks fourth in NFL with 616 yards receiving.

“We do expect him to be back on Wednesday and expect him to play this week unless there are setbacks,” McVay said.

Atwell, who signed a one-year, $10-million contract before this season, played only 10 snaps against the Jaguars after sitting out against the Ravens because of a hamstring injury. He has four catches for 164 yards, including an 88-yard touchdown.

McVay said offensive tackle Rob Havenstein also is expected to return this week from an ankle injury that has sidelined him for three games.

The Rams are 5-2 heading into their game against the Saints (1-7) at SoFi Stadium.

After an inconsistent start to the season for USC’s secondary, the defensive coordinator stood in front of a cadre of cameras and didn’t mince words. There were too many coverage busts leading to too many big pass plays, he said. He planned to spend the bye week studying film with microscopic focus in hopes of understanding exactly what had gone wrong.

“The lowlights cannot be that low,” he said. “You can’t just say it happens sometimes. Those things can’t happen.”

That coordinator was Alex Grinch, speaking in September 2023. Six weeks later, he was fired.

The circumstances aren’t quite that dire for the Trojans’ defense — or Grinch’s successor, D’Anton Lynn — in October 2025. But the problems with big pass plays have persisted since then. In fact, they’ve been worse this season than they were under USC’s previous coordinator, in spite of the fact that USC has yet to play a top-40 passing offense.

Through five games, USC has given up 51 pass plays of 10 yards or more. That’s eighth worst in the nation, equating to an average of over 10 such plays per game. And against Illinois, that propensity for allowing explosive plays came back to bite USC in a brutal loss.

“The pass defense has to get better,” USC coach Lincoln Riley said after the game. “It just wasn’t good enough.”

Two days later, when asked about the state of his secondary, Riley took a more encouraging tone. The cornerbacks, he said, “had a few errors here and there.” Take the game’s two biggest pass plays out of the equation, he added, and “it’s going to be really tough for them to beat us.”

Whether his cornerbacks have that same confidence coming out of the loss could be another question. How they respond out of this week’s bye, with key matchups against Michigan and Notre Dame ahead, might ultimately determine the course of USC’s season.

“Confidence, you can’t fake that,” Riley said. “We’re doing enough good things that it should show up and there should be confidence from that, but if we keep making some of the mistakes that we’ve made, whether it’s a busted coverage, or like not leveraging the football — those are controllable on us. Other people aren’t even having to make plays that way.”

Three consequential moments in the second half last Saturday were directly correlated to crippling mistakes from USC defensive backs. An Illinois swing pass in the third quarter went for a 64-yard score after safety Bishop Fitzgerald took a bad angle on running back Justin Feagin, and two corners in the area failed to shed blocks. Then, in the fourth quarter, another cornerback, Braylon Conley, was burned twice on explosive pass plays — first, when he was beat for a touchdown on a slant over the middle, and then, on the ensuing possession, when he fell down defending a hitch route that exploded for 61 yards.

Most of the group’s most glaring mistakes on big plays this season have been attributed to breakdowns in communication. Those issues were only exacerbated last week in the absence of safety Kamari Ramsey, who had recently taken over relaying calls from the sideline to the secondary.

Ramsey should return next week, but Riley said this week that communication on defense has been a primary focus for USC.

To Fitzgerald, the week off was a chance to “fully reset everything” in the secondary.

“It’s really just focusing more on the same things and trying to execute as a whole,” Fitzgerald said. “As a defense, if 10 guys do one thing but one person does the wrong thing, it’s a busted play. We can’t afford that. So we’re just trying to get everybody on the same page.”

As the Trojans enter the most difficult stretch of their schedule, it’s not clear who the coaches will trust most at corner going forward.

Injuries early this season robbed USC of two of its most experienced cornerbacks, Prophet Brown and Chasen Johnson. Then last week, as USC’s secondary unraveled in the loss to Illinois, redshirt senior DeCarlos Nicholson was in and out of the lineup with what appeared to be a nagging hamstring.

Nicholson, nonetheless, has been USC’s most consistent cover corner through five weeks. Across from him, redshirt freshman Marcelles Williams has started the last three games, but hasn’t by any means run away with the job.

Senior DJ Harvey was brought in from the transfer portal to be a major contributor at corner, but he has fallen far short of those expectations. He played only five snaps last Saturday, in spite of the team’s dire depth at corner, but one of those plays resulted in a devastating pass interference call on Illinois’ game-winning drive.

“We’re pretty young out there on the perimeter right now, without having Prophet and Chasen,” Riley said. “We need [Harvey’s] experience to show up. His emergence in this next phase of the season will be important for us, and he’s going to get every opportunity to do it.”

The most uncertain spot in the secondary has been in the slot, where Riley has yet to find a capable replacement for Brown. But USC might have an answer on the way in the form of true freshman Alex Graham.

Graham was an early standout during USC’s preseason camp but has been on the shelf since. Coaches have suggested he could return as soon as next week against Michigan and potentially step into a significant role right away in the slot, where, to this point, USC has relied on Ramsey playing out of position.

There’s not much depth at defensive back for USC to mine after that. True freshman RJ Sermons was one of the more coveted cornerback prospects in America, when he reclassified in the spring to enroll at USC a year early.

Riley didn’t rule out the possibility that Sermons, who should be a senior in high school, could play a critical role down the stretch. He said USC was “pushing it” with both he and Graham in hopes that they’d be ready “sooner than later.”

“They’re two guys that are talented enough to contribute for us right now,” Riley said. “You’re on just a race against time to get them ready, to pump as many reps into those guys. Because they clearly have the ability.”

Regardless, it’s going to take more than two true freshmen to steady USC’s secondary. The more pressing question now, after a suspect start this season, is whether the rest of the group is able to right the ship from here.

“One game doesn’t define them as a player, doesn’t define us as a defense,” safety Christian Pierce said. “We just keep our heads high and put the best foot forward.”

Eighth in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Jalen Flowers, Palos Verdes defensive back.

Jalen Flowers made a spectacular one-handed interception in a one-on-one drill during the spring. He didn’t run off the field waving his arms wildly or proclaim he’s the greatest lock-down cornerback since Deion Sanders.

“I’m not really a talker,” he said. “I let my game show it.”

He gives Palos Verdes High a 6-foot-2, 175-pound sophomore defensive back with the rare skill of being able to stick with any and all receivers. They can make moves, they can run their best patterns, but escaping Flowers doesn’t happen very often.

His instincts, lanky frame and knowledge from playing receiver come into play at a position in which misjudgments or a failure to respect an opponent can leave the defender getting burned for a touchdown.

“He’s got a knack,” coach Guy Gardner said of Flowers’ ability to cover receivers. “We coach him the best we can, but most of the things he does we didn’t coach. The way he carries himself, covering guys, running routes, things came naturally.”

He showed up during the summer of his freshman season and immediately got noticed as someone with talent. “It was pretty obvious,” Gardner said.

A 16-week season that led to a Division 2-A state championship saw Flowers catch four passes for 58 yards and one touchdown in the final. He finished the season with 26 tackles and one interception in his first full season playing defensive back and was literally growing taller every month.

“We didn’t think about him being a freshman from the midpoint of the season,” Garner said.

Flowers has played football since he was 6, so nothing an opponent tries to do on a football field ever surprises him.

“He really enjoys playing,” Gardner said. “You can see it when he plays. And he has some God-given ability.”

There are so many defensive backs with college football scholarship offers this season in Southern California that you’ll get a different answer every time you ask, “Who’s best?”

Madden Riordan, a USC commit from Sierra Canyon, had 11 interceptions last season. Isala Wily-Ava of St. John Bosco had 72 tackles as a sophomore safety along with seven interceptions. Aaryn Washington, a junior at Mater Dei, had 23 tackles and three interceptions during a 13-0 season. Gardena Serra has a trio of defensive backs headed to the college ranks in Wesley Ace, Marcellous Ryan and Duvay Williams.

There are schools with multiple top defensive backs, including St. John Bosco, Serra, Sierra Canyon, Mater Dei and Santa Margarita. No one is perfect. Even the best give up a touchdown on occasion.

But pay attention to what Flowers accomplishes in his sophomore season. Prepare for the bandwagon effect when people realize his gift for sticking close to receivers and start figuring out he’s no fluke.

And Flowers warns he’s not done growing.

“I might have an inch or more in me,” he said.

Said Gardner: “He’s putting in the work ethic with that ability and keeps getting better.”

Wednesday: San Pedro kicker Dylan Moreno.

Defensive backs to watch

Davon Benjamin, Oaks Christian, 6-0, 170, Sr.: Oregon commit returned three interceptions for touchdowns last season

Havon Finney Jr., Sierra Canyon, 6-3, 170, Sr.: LSU commit is terrific cornerback

Jalen Flowers, Palos Verdes, 6-2, 175, So.: He covers receivers so close he knows what gum they are chewing

Josh Holland, St. John Bosco, 6-2, 175, Sr.: USC commit with long arms and deceiving strength

Derrick Johnson, Murrieta Valley, 6-2, 170, Sr.: Oklahoma commit is tall, aggressive cornerback

Jeron Jones, Mission Viejo, 6-0, 195, Sr.: Washington commit makes big plays and big tackles

DeVohn Moutra Jr., Gardena Serra, 5-9, 190, Sr. Defensive player of the year from Mission League

Madden Riordan, Sierra Canyon, 5-11, 164, Sr.: USC commit had 11 interceptions

Aaryn Washington, Mater Dei, 6-0, 160, Jr:. Ready to make a leap in production

Isala Wiley-Ava, St. John Bosco, 6-3, 195, Jr.: Had seven interceptions as a sophomore

Donte Wright, Long Beach Poly, 6-2, 170, Jr. Georgia commit is fast, tough and smart

Through the first two weeks of USC’s preseason football camp, Prophet Brown had established himself as one of the early standouts in a crowded cornerback room.

But Brown’s breakout was cut short this week, when the redshirt junior suffered a noncontact injury during USC’s practice that’s expected to keep him out for the foreseeable future.

The timeline for his return remains uncertain. USC coach Lincoln Riley suggested the team would definitely be without him “for the first few games” but was still “hopeful to get him back here at some point.”

“Hate it for him because he’s been playing really well,” Riley said. “Obviously has had one of the more rapid ascents [this fall] in terms of all the years that he’s been here.”

USC defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn had just singled out Brown on Wednesday night as “one of the guys we trust most on defense.”

“He’s taken a big step,” Lynn said. “Outside of [safety] Kamari [Ramsey], I would say there’s no one on the back end that knows the defense quite like him.”

Brown had taken reps at all three corner spots since the beginning of camp, but was widely believed to be the favorite to start at slot corner. The only other player on USC’s roster with more than a handful of snaps in the slot during his college career is transfer corner DJ Harvey.

Lynn said on Wednesday that Harvey was getting some reps at slot corner.

“He’s a guy from a skill set standpoint that can do all three [corner positions],” Lynn said. “So we’re trying to get him as many reps at those slots as possible, to try to see which one is his best spot.”

Chasen Johnson, a transfer from Central Florida, and DeCarlos Nicholson were both expected to compete for outside corner spots and have minimal experience in the slot.

Until Friday, USC had felt pretty good about its depth at the position. But losing Brown is a significant blow, one that will put more pressure on young defensive backs to contribute early.

Riley also mentioned Braylon Conley and Marcelles Williams as corners who impressed in camp and could step up in Brown’s place.

Feeling good up front

At the start of camp, no position on USC’s roster appeared, on paper, to be as big of a concern as the offensive line, where the Trojans have to replace three starters from a group that already struggled a year ago.

But nearing the midway point of camp, Riley said he feels better about depth up front than he did in the spring.

“I like this group a lot,” Riley said. “Some young guys that have really come on fast. Give credit to Coach [Zach] Hanson for the development of these guys because we’ve got some guys who are rapidly improving.”

Among those who have surprised Riley: Guards Hayden Treter and Micah Banuelos, both of whom have dealt with injuries since coming to USC.

Both will likely be needed this season, given the lack of proven options otherwise.

Etc.

Star wideout Ja’Kobi Lane [unspecified injury] has yet to fully participate in USC’s preseason practices, but is expected to begin “ramping up” in the coming days, Riley said.