Why RB John Kelly is ideal For the LA Rams practice squad

Why RB John Kelly is Ideal For the LA Rams Practice Squad

With every new season, there come some difficult decisions to make. As the LA Rams begin cutdowns to the 53 man roster, they have to make these decisions based on team scrimmages, practices, and no preseason. Injuries are bound to happen for most teams and signing the right players to the practice squad is crucial.

Also, keeping in mind the future of the organization is key. There will be some prominent players released and if you’re Rams General Manager Les Snead you have to sit back and think, could this player make an impact for the team down the road?

Kelly’s heroes

LA Rams running back John Kelly happened to be one of the players to be waived today. This move came as a bit of a surprise because he was having a very strong camp and did exceptionally well in the team scrimmages. The only way to make sense of this move is that the Rams just simply thought rookie UDFA running back out of SMU Xavier Jones had a higher ceiling.

Kelly brings the team much-needed versatility, and that’s the type of player you can hope to retain during this process.

The team should look into using a protected practice squad spot

A new rule approved by the NFL owners came into effect back in July where you can have 16 practice squad players and four protected spots. with those four spots, you can block any team from claiming a certain player off your practice squad.

With the lingering hamstring injury to running back Darrell Henderson, Kelly would be the perfect candidate for being protected. He’s a player who can come in and make a big impact right away when needed. We’ve seen him flash his talent in previous years in the preseason, he was simply a scoring machine. Back when Kelly was at the University of Tennessee, he scored nine rushing touchdowns in his junior year and had 299 receiving yards. He can even return kicks, something the Rams still haven’t solidified and have had issues with the past few years.

Now for all of this to happen, Kelly would still have to clear waivers. To give confidence, this past year there were only 36 players claimed off waivers. If the Rams can bring him back to the practice squad, that would be an ideal case scenario for the team going forward.