The Los Angeles Rams aren’t taking a traditional approach to their special teams unit this year. They let Riley Dixon walk in free agency, lost Matt Gay to the Colts and didn’t re-sign Matthew Orzech, leaving them without a single specialist heading into the draft.
They only selected a punter, Ethan Evans, but they signed a long snapper and two kickers as undrafted rookies following the draft. They still have a kicker battle to sort out and the rookies, as inexperienced as they are, are just getting their feet wet, but new special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn is encouraged.
On Wednesday, he spoke about the Rams’ young special teams group, feeling good about the extensive work he and the team’s other coaches put in to find the best possible specialists in the 2023 class.
“For me, I think it is a rare situation,” he said of having an all-rookie specialist group. “Obviously, I don’t think it happens a ton, but I also think that what was encouraging to me was, (Jeremy) Springer and myself went out all on the road throughout. I don’t know how many we had – 44, something like that – pro days and private workouts and different things. We were able to get our hands on guys specifically and talk to them and make sure we match the right guys together because a lot of this specialist world, you have a lot of downtime. It’s about matching the personalities and the mindsets and knowing guys that’ll work and I think we did find that so I think that was encouraging.”
What also has Blackburn feeling good about the Rams’ group is the number of compliments he’s gotten from special teams coordinators and players around the NFL.
“And then the second part of that was how many special teams coordinators and former special teams coordinators or guys around that and specialists that I’ve worked with are like, ‘Man, you got the right guys. You brought the right guys in.’ And so that was encouraging to me that our work paid off and now we’re just going to keep bringing them along,” Blackburn said. “We’re still rookies. We still have a long way to go, still in the offseason, but we’re making the right strides.”
The two kickers the Rams signed, Christopher Dunn and Tanner Brown, were two of the best in the country last season. Dunn won the Lou Groza Award in 2022, which is given to the best kicker in college football, after making 28 of his 29 field goal attempts. He also went a perfect 200-for-200 on PATs in his college career.
Brown ranked third in the FBS with a field goal conversion rate of 95.7% last season and was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, joining Dunn as the only other kicker in the country to attempt at least 20 field goals and only miss one in 2022.
Blackburn has been encouraged by both kickers so far in OTAs, even with it being as early as it is.
“Both have been very good,” he said. “On the side work this week, yesterday and today were the first days of team. Both of them obviously missed one kick they want back. But outside of that, they’re hitting the ball really well. Showing good leg strength, good rise, good ball flight. More importantly, this place gets windy, right? You think of LA and you think of this area, I wouldn’t have necessarily thought that the practice fields and things would be windy. And so to be able to hit a true ball flight and power powerful kicks through that and make them right down the pipes is really, really encouraging for everybody.”
Alex Ward, the long snapper out of UCF, was a two-time finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, which is given to the best long snapper in college each year. So he’s another specialist with a strong track record like Dunn and Brown.
There will undoubtedly be a learning curve for the Rams’ young specialists, but the early reviews are positive – and it’s especially good to hear other coaches from around the league saying L.A. got the right guys.
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