The Rams last Thursday signed Poona Ford to a three-year deal.
Here are five things fans should know about Los Angeles' newest defensive lineman:
1) Jason Kelce hated playing against him
There's something to be said for commanding the respect of a six-time First-Team All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowl selection, not to mention future Hall-of-Famer in the former Eagles center. And Kelce's breakdown also offers some technical insight into what Ford brings to the Rams' defensive line.
"For some reason, not the best guys sometimes gave me issues," Kelce said recently on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take podcast. "Like, Poona Ford, backup nose guards sometimes gave me like the most fits out of anybody. Poona started in Seattle, played really good this year. Kind of had a down year in Buffalo, but he had longer arms than me and he's shorter than me so for me, it's like, all right, at least when I play a bigger guy, I can get up under him and win the leverage battle. And if I play a shorter guy, at least I have longer arms. So when you play somebody shorter with longer arms, like, I've negated every technical advantage I have. I have no mass advantage.
"I hated playing Poona."
2) 2024 was a career year
In his lone season with the Chargers, Ford tied his single-season career highs in tackles for loss (eight), quarterback hits (nine) and sacks (three).
Ford accomplished all of this while playing roughly 55 percent of the Chargers' defensive snaps.
3) The origin of "Poona"
According to his bio on the University of Texas' website, Kaylon Ford taking on the nickname of Poona evolved from when his grandmother began calling him Pooh (Bear) as a child. He told the Austin American-Statesman in 2016 while at Texas that he later "switched it over to 'Poona' to make it look a little more grown up."
4) Former undrafted free agent
The former Longhorn broke into the NFL as an undrafted free agent signee by the Seahawks. Making the initial 53-man roster in 2018, he went on to start in 64 of 76 games played over five seasons in Seattle, making 181 total tackles.
5) Shy by nature, but speaks up when needed
According to a 2021 profile written by The Athletic's Michael-Shawn Dugar, Ford was tired of Hilton Head Island High School losing to rival Bluffton, which recently won its fifth-straight game in the series putting up 80 points. When they played in September 2013, Hilton Head was down 18-6 at halftime. At the break, Ford gave a motivational, from-the-heart speech to his teammates. They went on to score the next 19 points, and Ford, who occasionally played fullback, had four tackles for loss, two sacks, plus three rushing touchdowns – the third setting up the go-ahead 2-point conversion – in an eventual 33-32 Hilton Head victory secured by a game-winning interception that snapped the losing streak.
