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The Rams acquired Sony Michel from the Patriots not to make him their starting running back, but to add depth behind Darrell Henderson Jr. in case of injury. Well, it only took two weeks for Henderson to get banged up, suffering a rib cartilage injury in the rams’ win over the Colts on Sunday afternoon.
Michel replaced Henderson and had 10 carries for 46 yards, looking good in his first extended action with the Rams. He’s poised to maintain a bigger role in Week 3 against the Buccaneers, even if Henderson is able to play.
Sean McVay indicated on Monday that in a case where Henderson is healthy enough to suit up, he may not get his typical workload because the Rams want to give him time to recover from this injury. That means Michel could be the starter and get the majority of the touches as Henderson heals up.
“We want to give him as much time as possible to get as healthy as possible. This is something that if the pain subsides, then we will be confident to be able to utilize him,” McVay said of Henderson. “Does that mean he starts and plays the amount of reps? What yesterday was a good, positive reflection of was that Sony got into the rhythm of a game, got a handful of caries. That was good for me to see. That was good for our players to see and I thought he did a nice job closing it out. So you can definitely expect to see Sony, and Jake (Funk) possibly utilized more this week. We’re hopeful and optimistic that we’ll get Darrell back, but that will be something that we’ll monitor throughout the course of the week. But we’ve got to take the approach that those guys have to get ready to carry the load, and if Darrell can go, then that’s a positive for us.”
Michel was a starter with the Patriots, making 28 starts in three seasons with New England. He averaged a respectable 4.3 yards per carry in 40 games, with a career-best 5.7 YPC average in 2020.
McVay obviously liked what he saw from Michel when he was with the Patriots, and some of that came through in Sunday’s win over the Colts. The Rams coach shared some of his thoughts on Michel’s performance, giving him credit for running strong and improving as the game went on.
“I thought he did a nice job. When we had to run the football in some of those key drives, especially on the full-play response to retake the lead, I thought he had a really good run versus a fire zone pressure,” McVay said. “Then when we got the ball back, when it’s a 24-24 game and how much we leaned on him and he was able to churn out a bunch of good yards – even in some of the four-minute situations where you know you’re running into heavy box counts. Thought he was strong. I thought he got better as he got more carries, where you’re kind of getting into the flow of a game, which is always a challenging thing for those skill players as they’re rotating. But you can see this as a guy that’s been in a lot of big-time games and I thought Sony really ingratiated himself. He did a nice job with that yesterday and I was pleased with Sony, for sure.”
The Rams will monitor Henderson’s health throughout the week, and it sounds like he’ll be held out of practice in an attempt to let him heal. He’ll be re-evaluated on Friday, which will likely determine whether he’ll be able to play or not on Sunday.
Michel is more than capable of handling a bigger workload, it’s just that depth is a concern with Jake Funk being the only other backup on the 53-man roster.
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