The Rams will be without Cam Akers on Sunday afternoon in Buffalo after the rookie suffered a rib injury in Week 2 against the Eagles. He won’t even make the flight with the team after Sean McVay ruled him out on Friday.
That leaves Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson as the team’s top two backs, which was the case for the majority of last week’s win over the Eagles. Henderson wound up carrying it 12 times for 81 yards, while Brown got 11 carries and turned them into 47 yards.
Akers had started the first two games of the season, which leaves the Rams undecided on which running back will replace him in the starting lineup against the Bills.
McVay was asked Friday who the starter will be, to which he simply said, “we haven’t decided yet.”
Ultimately, it probably won’t matter much which running back is officially the starter, considering how often the Rams like to rotate their tailbacks. What McVay did acknowledge is that Xavier Jones will definitely be the No. 3 back, and Raymond Calais could be active for the first time with the Rams.
“I think there’s a chance,” McVay said of whether Calais will be active. “We’ll work through that, but there’s a possibility that he could be up as the fourth running back. Xavier will definitely be up again; he’s done a nice job with special teams. So, we’ll see about Calais.”
Brown and Henderson will assuredly get most of the touches in the backfield, barring an injury to either one of them. And as promising as Akers looked in the first two weeks, Henderson and Brown each had big games when they were granted the opportunity.
McVay doesn’t expect anything to change with the Rams’ rushing attack, which is a testament to how interchangeable the three players are.
“We miss Cam. We’d love to be able to have him, but it doesn’t change anything,” he said. “So, Cam’s done a nice job these first couple of weeks, but like we’ve said, we felt good about all three of our backs all along. It’s never something that you want to have a guy that is a significant part of your offense missing, but when you do have depth at the position and Coach (Thomas) Brown done a great job, developing that depth with Malcolm and Darrell, we feel really good. Doesn’t change anything with our game plan.”
For fantasy owners, it simplifies things a bit with only two running backs to really consider. Henderson broke out in a big way with 121 yards and a touchdown last week, but Brown is good in the red zone and could poach goal line carries from the promising second-year back.