If you look up and down the Rams’ initial 53-man roster, you’ll notice one position is missing: kicker.
That’s right, the Rams don’t have a single kicker on their current roster. They cut rookie Tanner Brown on Tuesday and didn’t replace him, leaving them with only two specialists, those being a punter and long snapper.
Brown struggled this preseason, making only two of his four field goal attempts. He didn’t miss any extra point tries, but the field goal misses were concerning – especially the one from 39 yards in the finale.
It’s hard to blame the Rams for cutting a kicker who didn’t perform up to expectations, but leaving themselves without a good backup option all offseason was a mistake.
Now they have to either scour the waiver wire, sign a free agent or trade for someone, all while competing with other teams that might also be looking to upgrade at kicker. That makes this even more challenging with Week 1 approaching.
And before you ask, no, the Rams aren’t going to go for every fourth down and two-point conversion, as fun as that would be.
“I’d like to keep some of the things specific to exactly which direction we’re going in-house, just because it can’t be official or anything like that right now,” Sean McVay said Tuesday. “So you will certainly know, as soon as some of those moves become official, once we’re able to do that. But we will carry a kicker going into Seattle on the 10th.”
Los Angeles put itself in a bad spot all year by not having a true kicking competition in camp, making Brown the only option. And now this is where the Rams are left with a week to go.
