It’s been a rough start to the year for running backs when it comes to injuries. J.K. Dobbins tore his Achilles and is out for the year, Saquon Barkley will miss a few weeks with a sprained ankle and now Nick Chubb is sidelined for the rest of the season after suffering a gruesome knee injury Monday night.
The Rams, meanwhile, are trying to dump a running back of their own. They’re looking to move Cam Akers, who was a healthy scratch in Week 2 and is now on the trade block. With all these injuries, the Rams shouldn’t have much trouble finding a suitor for Akers, the best of which is Cleveland.
Buy Rams TicketsThe Browns used to be rich with talented running backs, at one time rostering Chubb, Kareem Hunt and D’Ernest Johnson. Now, they’re down to Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr.
It would make a lot of sense for Cleveland to call the Rams about Akers and offer a Day 3 pick for Akers. He may not be a high-end starter and he certainly isn’t in the class of Chubb, but he’d help round out their committee alongside Ford and Strong.
Sean McVay confirmed GM Les Snead has already talked to a few teams about a trade involving Akers and “there’s some other teams that have expressed interest,” so a deal seems inevitable – unless the Rams are just trying to drum up interest with these comments. And there doesn’t appear to be any chance Akers returns to Los Angeles.
“That won’t be an opportunity,” McVay said of whether Akers could stay with the Rams. “It’ll be an opportunity to be able to move … I feel good about the opportunity to be able to move him, but we won’t go back and forth on it.”
Akers is a tough player to evaluate because he had three straight 100-yard games to end last season, but he averaged just 1.3 yards per carry on 22 attempts in Week 1 of this year. Then there are the whispers about his fit in the locker room, with one report suggesting he hasn’t “adhered to the Rams’ culture.”
The Browns have a roster ready to compete for a playoff spot so trading a late-round pick for Akers, who could thrive with a change of scenery, might be their best move right now.
