In the last two weeks, both of the Rams’ top running backs suffered high ankle sprains. First, Cam Akers got hurt in Week 15 against the New York Jets, though he was still able to finish the game in what was a valiant effort by the rookie. Then a week later, Henderson went down, with his injury landing him on injured reserve – a minimum three-week absence.
Henderson is obviously out, but Sean McVay isn’t ready to declare Akers out, too. There’s still hope the rookie will be able to play in the season finale against Arizona. Akers missed the first two practices of the week, but he’s been working on the side and has looked good, according to McVay.
“He looked good moving around early on,” McVay said. “He didn’t participate in practice, but he was getting a workout in. You guys saw him on the early parts of the field, so he’s feeling good. I certainly am not ready to rule my man Cam out by any stretch.”
Practice is critical for young players, especially for rookies who didn’t have a normal offseason of work. That made things more difficult for Akers throughout the summer, but he’s since emerged as the team’s best running back.
McVay isn’t minimizing the importance of practice, but he would feel fine with Akers playing Sunday even if his time on the practice field this week is minimal. In all likelihood, Akers will be a game-time decision, based on the coach’s comments.
“You’d ideally like that, but I think with the amount of experience that he’s gotten as of late, if you can have him in any capacity, you feel good about that,” McVay said. “I do trust the way that he’s preparing, and I know (RBs coach) Thomas (Brown) is meeting with him and getting some above-the-neck mental reps. So, you’d like to be able to get him some physical reps, but I think the approach that we’ll take this week will be, use every moment that we have leading up to game time to make sure that you get him as healthy as possible and let’s not put him at risk for any potential setbacks. So, if he is able to go, it’ll be one of those deals that we’ll find out on game day, but don’t expect it to be any physical reps for him this week throughout the course of practice.”
If Akers is unable to go, Malcolm Brown and Xavier Jones will have to step up behind John Wolford. Brown is experienced, but Jones is an undrafted rookie. Ideally, Akers will be RB1 on Sunday. But in the event that he’s sidelined again, the Rams feel good about Brown and Jones – and maybe even Raymond Calais – coming through in his absence.