Even when healthy, Ahkello Witherspoon's usage varied in a unique Rams cornerback rotation. The approach to that rotation, and Witherspoon's own health amid an injury-shortened season, both played a role in that, as Los Angeles appeared determine those actives and inactives in the rotation on a matchup basis.
Now, Witherspoon is a pending unrestricted free agent with his one-year contract scheduled to expire at the start of the new league year on March 11.
"Ahkello has done really good stuff for us," head coach Sean McVay said in his end-of-season press conference on Feb. 2. "He just wasn't able to ever really get where he's able to play long enough and stay healthy."
According to Next Gen Stats, Witherspoon allowed 11 receptions on 17 targets against him in the six games he played in 2025, an injury-shortened season in which he broke his scapula again – he first hurt it in Week 2 against the Titans.
Despite those numbers, his size and frame still made him an asset to the cornerback rotation, giving Los Angeles its best option against bigger, more physical receivers. That's not to suggest his availability would've been the deciding factor in different outcomes against teams like the Eagles with A.J. Brown, or the 49ers with Jauan Jennings, or the Falcons with Drake London, but it certainly would've helped the secondary match up better against those types of receivers. Witherspoon returned in Week 13, played in Week 14, then was inactive for Week 15 against the Lions and Week 16 against the Seahawks before being active for the final two weeks of the regular season.
Cornerback is a position the Rams will be looking closely at, in part because of the number of pending free agents – which also include Roger McCreary, Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick. But the team has already taken the cornerback position in a new direction coaching-wise with Jimmy Lake now pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach and Michael Hunter as assistant defensive backs coach, and Aubrey Pleasant and Mike Harris no longer on staff. Like the other pending free agents, does Witherspoon still fit the vision Lake and Hunter – and by extension, defensive coordinator Chris Shula – have for the 2026 rotation?
