As well as the Rams’ rookie safeties have played in training camp, Los Angeles is better with Taylor Rapp roaming the secondary. Unfortunately, he’s been unavailable since the pads came on last week, missing every practice and Saturday’s scrimmage at SoFi Stadium due to a knee injury.
Terrell Burgess and Jordan Fuller have made an impact already in Rapp’s place and should continue to provide depth throughout the season, but it sounds like the second-year safety will be good to go for Week 1.
Sean McVay made it clear that he doesn’t think there’s anything that wikk keep Rapp from playing in the season opener against the Cowboys and he should be back on the field in the next week or so.
“He’s doing good. He’s making progress. I’m hopeful that, you know, within the next week he’ll be able to get back out on the field,” McVay said Sunday. “So, he’s making the progress that we want. Certainly, we would love to have him out there right now. But I don’t think that anything is going to be threatened for this Dallas game. And obviously, that’s the most important thing is getting ready to go and being as healthy as we possibly can for the 13th.”
McVay was asked hypothetically who would fill in for Rapp if he somehow isn’t ready for the first game of the season. Burgess and Fuller would be obvious picks, but McVay wouldn’t commit to either one as a potential replacement.
“I think that’s to be determined,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are doing really well at the safety position. I mentioned those young players, those rookies, but, you know, we’ve got a lot of football left, we’ve got a lot of evaluation, still, to get done, to really identify those guys that are going to carve out roles for the 13th.”
Rapp took John Johnson’s place in the starting lineup last year after Johnson went down with injury and put together a highly encouraging rookie campaign. He’ll try to build on that as Johnson’s running mate in 2020, not his replacement, with the two making up one of the best young tandems in football.