7 players who face playing their last game for the LA Rams

RB Brown

The LA Rams benefit a great deal from the play of veteran running back Malcolm Brown. While he is not as appreciated as his more productive teammates, he does fill many needs on the offense this season. The problem is that they are not the types of roles anyone but the coaching staff truly understands and appreciates.  At 5-foot-11 and 222 pounds, Brown is the biggest and strongest of the Rams running back committee.

He is also the most experienced. That has led him to be the maintenance back of the group. He enters the game to troubleshoot and ‘fix’ things. If the Rams need better pass blocking, Brown enters the game to pickup defenders who threaten the quarterback. If the Rams face a physical defense, Brown enters the game to rush out those tough yards.

Jack of all trades

if the Rams need a running back to catch some passes as a safety outlet, Malcolm Brown can do that too. He is even the go-too running back when the Rams need to punch the ball in for a touchdown. That flexibility to address whatever is needed on any given play gives Brown a jack-of-all-trades utility. But it comes at a price, the master-of-none part of that phrase that also aptly describes Brown’s value to other teams. And for a veteran hoping for a pay-raise from his current $1,312,500 contract price, he may find no takers in free agency.

Brown is very useful in the right offense. But with the expansion of dual-threat quarterbacks in NFL offense, that usefulness is not as wholesomely appreciated. On the Rams offense, the team seems intent on turning over the keys to rookie running back Cam Akers. And if the truth be known, undrafted rookie Xavier Jones is a younger version of a running back who has a very similar ‘into-the-endzone-we-go’ mindset as Brown does.