Dakota Allen deserves spot on 53-man roster for Rams instead of practice squad

The Los Angeles Rams signed rookie linebacker Dakota Allen to the practice squad on Sunday.

Over the last couple of days, the Los Angeles Rams have been busy trimming down their roster to 53 players before Saturday’s deadline, and while there were plenty of tough decisions to make, it was surprising to see Dakota Allen fail to earn a spot.

Back in April when the Rams decided to use a seventh-round pick on the Texas Tech product, Allen seemed like the kind of rookie that could one day potentially play a major role on defense for Los Angeles.

Ever since the Sean McVay era officially got underway back in 2017, the Rams have received all sorts of high praise for the work they do preparing for drafts since the team has managed to come up with numerous steals over the last three years.

From Cooper Kupp in the third round back in 2017 to even this past April with Darrell Henderson, Los Angeles has established a reputation for being a team that really does their homework in regards to draft prep.

So when the Rams made the decision to give Allen a shot in April, early signs pointed to Los Angeles truly believing that the rookie could one day develop into a reliable linebacker on defense for Wade Phillips.

While Saturday was filled with plenty of cuts that weren’t too surprising, plenty of Rams fans were shocked by the decision with Allen, especially since the team was already hurting at linebacker with Micah Kiser.

And even though Los Angeles should consider themselves lucky for Allen clearing waivers so they could sign him to the practice squad, a case can still be made that he should be on the active roster.

Sure, the decision to sign Allen to the practice squad can easily be viewed as a better than nothing kind of situation, but it still doesn’t take away from the fact that Allen seemed worthy of a spot on the 53-man roster.

In time, no one would be surprised if Allen quickly worked his way into a promotion on the active roster since the Rams could certainly use the extra help from a young linebacker such as Allen with potential to grow.

But as mentioned before, thank goodness that Los Angeles was able to sign Allen to the practice squad, because if he ended up on a different team, chances are there would have been some regrets down the road from the Rams.