It’s that time of year again where Los Angeles Rams’ general manager Les Snead and head coach Sean McVay must trim the roster down to 53 players. This season is particularly is more challenging due to the limited play time some of these players received.
As usual, there are quite a few surprises, but McVay and the rest of the coaching staff are looking for particular players. Also important to note that while some of these surprise cuts are off the active roster, it doesn’t mean their time in Los Angeles is over. They can land on the practice squad if they clear waivers. That said, here is the full list of cuts:
QB: Bryce Perkins
RB: John Kelly
WR: Earnest Edwards, Easop Winston, J.J. Koski
TE: Kendall Blanton
G: Jamil Demby, Jeremiah Kolone
C: Cohl Cabral
DT: Marquise Copeland, Michael Hoecht
DE: Jonah Williams
LB: Christian Rozeboom, Clay Johnston, Daniel Bituli, Derrick Moncrief, Justin Lawler (Injured) Natrez Patrick
DB: Adonis Alexander, Dayan Lake, Donte Deayon, Jake Gervase, Juju Hughes, Tyrique McGhee
K: Austin MacGinnis, Lirim Hajrullahu
The surprising cut to start off with was K Hajrullahu. Many reports out of camp indicated that he was the favorite to land the starting role. Instead, it was revealed that rookie Sam Sloman won the kicking competition. We can likely expect either MacGinnis and Hajrullahu to be kept on the practice squad.
Running back Kelly is not much of a surprise cut, but a player worth noting. Initially drafted in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Kelly hasn’t really been utilized much. He’s been primarily bouncing back and forth from practice squad to the active roster. This will likely be the same story in 2020. This means that Rams are rolling with four RBs and the last spot went to SMU undrafted free agent, Xavier Jones.
Quite possibly the biggest cut of the day is 2020 seventh round pick, Clay Johnston. Not so much because he’s a drafted rookie, but because of how thin the Rams are at ILB. The Rams recently lost Travin Howard for the season, so that impacts the position even more. Not to mention Rozeboom and Patrick were also among the cuts too.
We can likely expect the Rams to attempt to bring in some recently cut talents at the ILB position. As for Johnston, it’s entirely possible that the Rams could try and bring him back on the practice squad but that didn’t work for Dakota Allen last year. The Rams cut Allen and the Oakland Raiders (Now, Las Vegas Raiders) swooped in and picked him up.
The secondary is one of the Rams’ most loaded positions on the roster. So cuts to some talented guys like Gervase, Hughes and Deayon showcases the talent level. Deayon is especially surprising considering the praise he was receiving and was also the media darling of HBO’s Hard Knocks series. Some of these guys may not clear waivers.
Howard was placed on the IR, while A’Shawn Robinson was placed on the Reserve/NFI list, leaving the team with 52 players on the roster currently.
Source: Twitter.com
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