Jaylen McCollough

First career interception went for a pick-six against Jordan Love.

McCollough went undrafted out of Tennessee in 2024, latched on with the Rams, and his very first career INT was a pick-six against Jordan Love in Week 5. He followed up with 2 picks in one game vs Gardner Minshew in Week 7, then a fourth pick off Geno Smith in Week 9.

Four rookie picks in a five-week stretch — that's the ball-hawk audition the Rams hired him for.

Year-2 jump: tackles up from 27 to 39, sacks up from 1 to 2, PDs up from 4 to 6.

Across-the-board growth in year 2 — every counting stat went up except picks (and 4 INTs in a rookie year is hard to repeat). 66 career tackles, 10 PDs, 3 sacks, 4 INTs in his first two NFL seasons.

The early-career profile is rare: undrafted safeties usually break in as core special-teamers and don't see real defensive snaps until year 3. McCollough was in the rotation by week 5 of his rookie year.

He's sacked Jalen Hurts twice — once in a 2024 playoff game, once in 2025.

All three of McCollough's career sacks have come on safety blitzes that produced significant losses — the average of his three is -8.0 yards, far above what the average blitzer logs.

The Hurts sack pair is the headline: he got Hurts in the 2024 playoffs and again in the 2025 regular season, both on third-down pressures. For a sub-6'0" safety to record two career sacks against the league's most-elusive QB is a real piece of trivia.

He played in all 21 Rams games in 2025 — including their NFC Championship run.

McCollough was on the field for every game of the Rams' 2025 season, including their three-game playoff run that ended in the NFC Championship loss at Seattle. His Week 21 (NFC Championship) line: 2 tackles, 1 PD in coverage against the eventual Super Bowl team.

That kind of postseason availability is rare for a second-year UDFA safety on a contender's defense.

4 picks in year 1, 0 in year 2 — but the rest of his stat line is better.

The headline drop is the INT count: 4 → 0. But every other defensive stat moved in the right direction:

- Tackles: 27 → 39 (+44%) - PDs: 4 → 6 (+50%) - Sacks: 1 → 2 (+100%) - QB hits: 2 → 2 (flat)

INT counts are the single most volatile defensive stat year-over-year — a defender with the same tape can swing from 5 picks to 0 based on tipped-ball luck and target volume. McCollough's PD jump (4 → 6) suggests he's still getting hands on the ball at the same rate; the picks just didn't stick.