Rams can afford to be patient with Greg Zuerlein thanks to Cairo Santos

After signing Cairo Santos, the Los Angeles Rams can afford to wait it out on Greg Zuerlein until he’s healthy enough to return.

As great as it’s been to watch the Los Angeles Rams find the end zone over the first four weeks of the 2018 season, the team has unfortunately been dealing with some issues on special teams at the kicker position.

During warmups a few weeks ago, Greg Zuerlein suffered a groin injury that has since prevented him from playing in games, leaving the Rams to settle for Sam Ficken in his absence.

However, when looking at the struggles surrounding Ficken being reliable, including an easy 28-yard chip shot in Week 4 against the Minnesota Vikings, it was easy to understand the decision by Los Angeles to move on from the former Penn State kicker.

Since Zuerlein still isn’t 100 percent ready to play, the Rams decided to sign former Kansas City Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos in the mean time to help get by, although with the way the offense is scoring touchdowns, he may not be needed as much.

Still, it’s important for a serious contender like Los Angeles to have a reliable kicker each week in case there ever is a time when the offense struggles to put up points in the end zone. And since the last thing the Rams want to do is rush Zuerlein before he’s fully ready, Santos is at least an upgrade over Ficken.

Between having a lot more experience to showing he can handle the pressure on numerous occasions, Santos knows this is the perfect opportunity to prove himself as a reliable kicker in the NFL.

The job may go right back to Zuerlein when he is healthy enough to return since the Rams also know what he’s capable of after last season’s career numbers before suffering a back injury. But for now, all that matters for Los Angeles is they can feel much better about their kicker situation with Santos since Ficken arguably never should have been in the picture to begin with.

Plus, let’s not forget that Seattle Seahawks fans tend to provide opponents with one of the most hostile environments in the NFL, so it’s good to see the Rams go with a kicker that has proven to be able to handle these kind of pressure situations.