The Los Angeles Rams are in the process of transitioning from having an All-Pro workhorse handle the bulk of their carries to utilizing more of a committee approach. That, of course, comes after the team cut Todd Gurley in March and drafted Cam Akers out of Florida State a month later.
Akers joins Malcolm Brown and Darrell Henderson in the Rams backfield, though their exact roles are still to be determined. Will Akers be the No. 1 back? Will Henderson merely be a change-of-pace player? Will Brown only get one or two carries a game?
All of that will be decided as the season goes on, and we won’t know much until players get back on the field for either minicamp or training camp – whichever comes first. But on “Around the NFL,” Rams GM Les Snead shed some light on the backfield plan and hinted at Brown being a short-yardage or goal-line back.
“The playtime and what their role is will definitely evolve as we get back to training camp, begin practicing, get back on the field and start playing football,” he began. “The interesting thing, the tidbit early over the course of Malcolm Brown’s career, he has – and this is not for fantasy football and it’s probably not for highlights – but if you’re a fan of the Rams and you’ve watched 65 plays of offense down in and down out during a game, those people who tuned in for him know that he has moved the chains and scored some important touchdowns when defenses get tight and try to stop it. Whether it’s a third-and-1 or 2, or if it’s a second-and-goal from the 1 or 2, or third-and-goal. So touchdowns mean something in fantasy, so maybe that’s a good tidbit.”
It’s interesting that Brown was the first running back Snead mentioned, especially with Akers and Henderson receiving the bulk of the attention up to this point. He did discuss those other two, though, and likes what the Rams have in both.
Here’s what he said about Henderson after praising Brown’s work in short-yardage situations.
“Darrell Henderson showed at Memphis and we do think what he showed at Memphis definitely has a chance to translate to our league and that’s the ability to hit home runs and I know that means something in fantasy,” Snead said.
And then as for Akers, Snead once again mentioned the rookie’s ability to overcome poor blocking up front and a weak supporting cast at Florida State. It was one of the thing the Rams loved about his game and made them confident that he could succeed against NFL defenses where running lanes are tougher to come by.
“I know Cam has proven in the ACC playing for a team basically that hasn’t been as manned with the type of players Florida State is used to in the past and he was able to overcome that and be their go-to guy so that’s going to be fun to watch to see how that evolves,” Snead said.
So reading the tea leaves, we can almost determine that the Rams’ backfield will look something like this – depending on how each guy is playing and who they’re playing in a given week. Akers will likely handle the early-down carries, while Henderson will be a Kamara-type (which Snead mentioned last year) and Brown will be a short-yardage and goal-line specialist.
Snead didn’t explicitly say any of those things, but he mentioned short-yardage conversions for Brown, home runs for Henderson and Akers being a “go-to guy” at FSU.
“Time will tell. Time always tells,” Snead said. “We have three running backs, we have three that we really like and that is an honest answer to see how when you start with three important players that you want to give playtime to, how it evolves into how many carries or touches or snaps in a game they get is to be determined based on how we’re scheming against a certain opponent, how one of the players is playing or has gotten hot or not hot or is banged up or not. So those things will come to fruition during the 2020 season.”
However this all works out, Snead and the Rams have one goal: get the running game going again. After a down year in 2019 by just about every measure compared to the year before, the Rams want to get their running game back on track with this new game plan in the backfield.
“That’s a long-winded answer but our goal is to get that running game and our offense back to our 2017 and 2018 standards and we think those three players can help us do that,” he said.