Tag: Tanner Brown

Rams sign kicker to practice squad with Joshua Karty banged up

Joshua Karty is dealing with a groin injury so the Rams are adding a backup kicker to the practice squad

Rookie kicker Joshua Karty is among the many Los Angeles Rams players dealing with an injury at the moment and while his is minor, the team is taking steps to ensure there’s a backup plan.

On Tuesday, the Rams signed kicker Tanner Brown to the practice squad. Brown has had a couple of stints with the Rams, making this his third time being signed by the team. He was originally signed as an undrafted rookie in 2023 before returning on a futures contract this offseason. He was waived on Aug. 13 after Karty won the kicking job.

Sean McVay said Monday that Karty is expected to be fine for Sunday’s game against the 49ers but after seeing the Giants lose with no kicker in Week 2, the Rams want to make sure they have a contingency plan in case Karty doesn’t heal as quickly as anticipated.

Giants work out Randy Bullock, three other kickers

The New York Giants hosted four kickers for a workout on Monday, including ex-Giant Randy Bullock.

With Graham Gano out for the next few weeks, the New York Giants are looking for a new placekicker.

On Monday, the team worked out kickers Randy Bullock, Zane Gonzalez, Riley Patterson, and Tanner Brown.

Head coach Brian Daboll said that Jude McAtamney, who spent all summer on the 90-man roster and is now on the team’s practice squad, would also be considered for the job.

“We’ll work guys out and Jude has been with us so we’ll make a decision off of the workout. Based on how they do in the workout and then Jude,” he told reporters on Monday.

Bullock, of course, has had two stints with the Giants in the past. The first one was a single game in 2016 and the second was six games last season.

Brown spent time with the Los Angeles Rams on their practice squad. Gonzalez has kicked for five other NFL teams in his career, which began in 2017.

Patterson has spent time with nine NFL teams and was most recently on the Washington Commanders’ practice squad.

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Rams waive kicker Tanner Brown

The Rams have waived Tanner Brown, meaning rookie Joshua Karty will be their kicker moving forward

It only took one preseason game for Joshua Karty to convince the Los Angeles Rams that he’s their best option at kicker. The Rams were already committed to Karty prior to Sunday’s 3-for-3 performance, but there’s no longer a competition at kicker.

On Tuesday, the Rams waived Tanner Brown, leaving Karty as the only kicker on the roster. Brown was signed by the Rams as an undrafted free agent last offseason but was waived before Week 1. They then signed him to a futures contract this offseason, giving him another opportunity to kick for the Rams.

Karty handled all of the kicking duties on Sunday against the Cowboys, making two field goals and a game-winning extra point. The sixth-round rookie has performed well in practice and will hopefully carry that over into the regular season.

Rams’ kicking battle between Joshua Karty, Tanner Brown has been ‘really tight’

Rookie Joshua Karty is presumed to be the Rams’ kicker this year but he won’t be handed the job just because he was drafted

When the Rams drafted Joshua Karty in the sixth round, it was assumed by many that he would be Los Angeles’ kicker this season. However, he won’t be handed the job. He’ll have to earn it, as he should.

Tanner Brown, who the Rams signed as an undrafted rookie in 2023, is putting up a fight in training camp.

Special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn told reporters Tuesday that both kickers have done well in practice and it’s been a “really tight competition.”

“Done well,” Blackburn said of Karty. “Once we get to the actual uprights – that’s one of the issues here. We just haven’t been able to get the uprights in so we all have the ‘skinnys.’ It’s going to look huge when we get the SoFi. That’s a good thing. Both him and Tanner have been kicking really well. Really tight competition. Everyone’s had (a) really solid camp. Taken off exactly where they were in the offseason. Feeling really good about where they’re at and where their mental state is and all those types of things.”

The Rams waived Brown last summer just before the start of the season and he remained a free agent all year before the team brought him back in January by signing him to a reserve/futures contract.

Karty should still have the advantage in this competition, being a drafted rookie with an excellent track record at Stanford, but it’s smart for the Rams to at least make it an open battle in training camp. Plus, most teams carry two kickers into camp so as not to put too much wear and tear on one player when working through kickoffs and other special teams situations.

Rams sign K Tanner Brown, giving him another shot this offseason

Tanner Brown was the Rams’ top kicker during the 2023 offseason but never made the team. He’ll get another shot in LA this offseason.

The Rams held a kicking competition between Tanner Brown and Christopher Dunn last summer, both of whom were undrafted rookies. Brown won the battle but he didn’t start the season as the Rams’ kicker.

He was waived before Week 1 and the Rams replaced him with Brett Maher. Brown never got another shot with the Rams but he’ll get a second chance this offseason. The team announced Thursday that it has signed Brown to a reserve/futures contract, reserving him a spot on the 90-man roster.

Brown was incredibly accurate in college, making 22 of 23 field goal attempts at Oklahoma State in 2022, but he’s yet to kick in a regular-season game in the NFL.

He could get another chance to compete for the Rams’ kicking position this year again, especially considering Maher will be a free agent and the Rams don’t have another kicker on the team.

Chase Blackburn explains Rams’ decision to replace Tanner Brown with Brett Maher

Chase Blackburn explained why the Rams replaced Tanner Brown with Brett Maher at kicker, citing experience and Brown’s preseason misses.

The Los Angeles Rams had rookies at kicker, punter, and long snapper entering training camp, but they’ve since elected to get more experience at the kicker position. Chase Blackburn, the new special teams coordinator for the Rams, explained why the Rams decided to replace Tanner Brown with Brett Maher.

“Yeah, at the end of the day we had three rookies, love to get a veteran in here,” Blackburn said. “Not only for the ability, he’s been through it, done it, seen it, had those playoff opportunities, had different opportunities, and seen what it’s like to be in big game environments. And so for him to come in here and give us something, especially after we got to see him for a couple days and see how well he was kicking the ball there in Denver was a big deal. And obviously, Tanner missed again in the preseason and that’s the unfortunate part about kicking is it’s about kind of a ‘what have you done for me lately’-type deal. And that’s one of the positions where you only get so many attempts or so many looks at it, especially in the preseason where we move from four games to three games now, right? So you get limited reps and limited looks in actual game activity and it’s about producing when those lights come on.”

The expectation was for Brown to be the starting kicker for the Rams this season after signing as an undrafted rookie out of Oklahoma State. But after converting only two of his four field goal attempts in the preseason, Blackburn and the Rams began looking at other options.

Maher was competing for the starting kicker spot on the Denver Broncos before the Broncos acquired Will Lutz in a trade with the New Orleans Saints. The veteran kicker would be released and the Rams didn’t waste much time signing him in hopes he could give them consistency in the kicking game.

With the Dallas Cowboys a season ago, Maher made a career-best 29 of his 32 field-goal attempts (90.6%). The only concern is that Maher missed five of his six extra-point tries in the postseason in 2022 after he made 50 of his 53 extra-point attempts in the regular season.

Experience can be crucial at the kicker spot, and with Brown’s woes in the preseason, Blackburn and the Rams believe Maher was the best choice entering Week 1.

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The Rams botched their kicker situation this offseason

The Rams only carried one kicker all offseason and he was an undrafted rookie. Now they have no great kicking options available to them.

Every NFL team set its initial 53-man roster on Tuesday, each making a flurry of moves to get under the league limit. Yet, only one team doesn’t have a single kicker on the roster. That team is the Los Angeles Rams.

Several teams made trades for kickers, solving what’s one of the toughest positions to find consistency at. The Titans traded for Nick Folk, the Broncos acquired Wil Lutz and the Chargers struck a deal for Dustin Hopkins.

The Rams, meanwhile, cut rookie Tanner Brown and sat on their hands and watched as their opponents scooped up the best available kickers. Los Angeles will find someone to be its kicker, either via waivers or free agency. But Les Snead and Sean McVay didn’t necessarily handle this situation very well.

As badly as everyone would’ve loved for the Rams to re-sign Matt Gay, it’s hard to blame them for letting him walk. He signed the biggest free-agent deal ever for a kicker, earning $22.5 million from the Colts – including $10 million guaranteed. For a team in a rebuild, and one trying to clear cap space in 2024 and 2025, the Rams clearly didn’t want to commit that much money to a kicker.

However, that doesn’t mean they should’ve put all their eggs in the basket of an undrafted rookie. The Rams only carried Tanner Brown, a stud kicker in college, on their roster all offseason. They thought he’d be their replacement for Gay. Fair. But they shouldn’t have gone the entire summer without giving him at least some competition at kicker.

Just as they did in 2020, the Rams should’ve had a legitimate position battle for the job. They should’ve signed someone such as Robbie Gould or even Mason Crosby a while ago, adding someone to push Brown and put a little heat on him.

And in the event that Brown struggled the way he did in the preseason, at least they’d have a fallback option – a player they’ve gotten a look at throughout the offseason. Now they’re left to sign someone who’s left over from another team – or a free agent that no one cared to sign all year.

I get the idea of wanting to give Brown as many reps and opportunities as possible. After all, he only attempted four field goals in the preseason as it is. But with a 90-man roster, keeping two kickers instead of one wouldn’t have been an issue.

We’ll see who the Rams go with before Week 1, but their kicker position could look similar to one you’d see on a fantasy team. It might be a revolving door before they settle on someone consistent, which is what happened in 2020 before Gay emerged in-season.

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Rams don’t have a single kicker on their 53-man roster

The Rams put together their 53-man roster Tuesday but they don’t have a single kicker on it

If you look up and down the Rams’ initial 53-man roster, you’ll notice one position is missing: kicker.

That’s right, the Rams don’t have a single kicker on their current roster. They cut rookie Tanner Brown on Tuesday and didn’t replace him, leaving them with only two specialists, those being a punter and long snapper.

Brown struggled this preseason, making only two of his four field goal attempts. He didn’t miss any extra point tries, but the field goal misses were concerning – especially the one from 39 yards in the finale.

It’s hard to blame the Rams for cutting a kicker who didn’t perform up to expectations, but leaving themselves without a good backup option all offseason was a mistake.

Now they have to either scour the waiver wire, sign a free agent or trade for someone, all while competing with other teams that might also be looking to upgrade at kicker. That makes this even more challenging with Week 1 approaching.

And before you ask, no, the Rams aren’t going to go for every fourth down and two-point conversion, as fun as that would be.

“I’d like to keep some of the things specific to exactly which direction we’re going in-house, just because it can’t be official or anything like that right now,” Sean McVay said Tuesday. “So you will certainly know, as soon as some of those moves become official, once we’re able to do that. But we will carry a kicker going into Seattle on the 10th.”

Los Angeles put itself in a bad spot all year by not having a true kicking competition in camp, making Brown the only option. And now this is where the Rams are left with a week to go.

Report: Rams among teams looking to trade for a kicker

The Rams may not be completely sold on rookie Tanner Brown as their kicker

The Los Angeles Rams only have one kicker on their roster heading into final cuts, but they may not be completely sold on rookie Tanner Brown at that spot. According to Dianna Russini of The Athletic, the Rams are among the teams calling around looking to trade for a kicker.

The Lions, Titans, 49ers and Broncos are the other teams eyeing help at the position.

It’s hardly surprising that the Rams are considering a trade for a kicker, given Brown’s lack of experience and minor struggles in the preseason. Brown, who was signed as an undrafted rookie this year, went 2-for-4 on field goal attempts this preseason, missing a 39-yarder in the finale against the Broncos.

As of now, only a few teams have multiple kickers on their rosters, two of which are reportedly looking to trade for a kicker.

Patriots: Chad Ryland, Nick Folk

Jaguars: Brandon McManus, James McCourt

Lions: Riley Patterson, Parker Romo

Saints: Wil Lutz, Blake Grupe

49ers: Jake Moody, Zane Gonzalez

If the Rams don’t strike a deal for a kicker before final cuts, look for them to potentially claim someone off waivers or sign a free agent later this week. It’s obvious they aren’t 100% settled on Brown being their kicker this season, and understandably so.

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6 Rams to watch in preseason Week 2 vs. Raiders

Here are 6 players to watch as the Rams take on the Raiders in the second week of the preseason.

The Los Angeles Rams will host the Las Vegas Raiders for their second preseason contest on Saturday. The Rams are coming off a 34-17 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in their preseason opener, but the team is focused on determining certain position battles rather than winning meaningless games.

With Week 1 only a few weeks away, time is ticking for players to show enough to earn a roster spot. Ahead of Saturday’s preseason meeting with the Raiders, here are six players from the Rams to pay attention to.