Advertisement

McVay, Snead hint Rams aren't done making moves at RB

One of the biggest surprises coming out of cutdown day was the Los Angeles Rams’ decision to only keep three running backs on the 53-man roster. It’ll be Todd Gurley, Darrell Henderson Jr. and Malcolm Brown handling the carries out of the backfield as the Rams cut both John Kelly and Justin Davis.

They’re the only three running backs on the team – for now.

After cuts were made, Sean McVay and Les Snead addressed the media and explained some of the moves. They were quickly asked about only keeping three tailbacks and hinted that more moves are coming.

“We’ve got a couple of things that could explain that a little bit later down the road. We’ll keep that in-house for right now,” Snead said.

McVay’s response was lengthier, sharing how difficult of a decision it was to cut Kelly on Saturday.

“I think you’ll get some clarity just because of some moves that we may or may not make. We think the world of John Kelly and what he’s done for this football team. That’s where when you start to get into the semantics – like Les is talking about – your 53(-man roster) and then, you’re ultimately projecting for your 46(-man roster) – how can you do some of the stuff with your practice squad?” McVay said. “What I’ve begun to learn over the last three years, especially, is there’s some nuances, there’s some layers and a lot of that is specific to not only opening week, but projecting, ‘How do you give looks? How do you balance out a lot of different things that you want to personnel-wise in a given game plan?’ There’s a lot of factors in it, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that we think very highly of a good football player in John Kelly that we had to make a tough decision on.”

It’s unlikely the Rams are going to add any outside running backs, but rather address the position from inside. McVay’s comment about the practice squad indicates the Rams will try to add Kelly to the 10-man unit in hopes of keeping him around.

That would not only give them a contingency plan in case of injury but also more running backs in practice to take the load off of Gurley. After all, Gurley didn’t practice on consecutive days once this offseason, and that trend is likely to continue into the regular season.

It’s unlikely the Rams would’ve had four running backs active on game days anyway, which is why they’d probably prefer to put Kelly on the practice squad rather than the 53-man roster.

Of course, Kelly has to clear waivers first, which isn’t certain to happen.

More Latest Rams news