LA Rams special teams is ripe for RB Raymond Calais’s speed

The LA Rams did not get a lot out of their special teams in 2020. Let’s face it, the 2020 season did not provide much of a foundation for improving the team by adding rookie talent. The timeline of the 2020 offseason provided no room for coaching up rookies into key contributors, from the virtual offseason program to the crash course training camp to no preseason games, the deck was stacked against making wholesale changes.

The Rams expected as much, deciding quickly to run it back as identically to the 2019 roster makeup as possible. That pitted virtually the same offensive line, the same linebacker group, and even the same special teams’ group for 2020 as 2019.

That resulted in the Rams going with KR/PR/WR Nsimba Webster to assume the primary return duties for the team. That was unfortunate because the Rams had signed a speedster to the 53-man roster who was blessed with blinding speed. The player? Running back Raymond Calais, signed off the Tampa Bay Buccaneers waiver wire before they could stash him to their practice squad.

Small, but speedy

Calais is a 5-foot-8 188-pound speed demon. Speedy? Well, he posted a 4.42-second time on the 40-yard dash fast.

But speed means nothing without the ability to harness that speed on the football field. Well, um, what’s that? Oh yeah, he’s got serious jets returning the football. Like serious sonic boom jets and flashy moves.

And best of all, he can deliver with the ball in his hands. He was just one of two running backs in the 2020 NFL Draft to carry the football more than 100 times and have better than a 7.8 yards-per-carry average.

So where was this production for the LA Rams? Well, it actually was there. He was active in just four games for the Rams in 2020, where he played 34 special teams snaps. Of that amount, he returned seven kickoffs at an average of 21.7 yards. His longest was 41 yards, more than 10 yards more than Webster’s returns, despite having far fewer opportunities.

With new special teams director Joe Decamillis, the outlook for a growing role for Calais on the special teams’ roster is improved. That, plus the Rams need for move explosive and diverse weapons on offense could combine to promote’s Calais’s role with the team in 2021. The Rams may add more weapons during or after the 2021 NFL Draft, but don’t ignore Raymond Calais in the process.  One blink and he’s gone.