LA Rams: 4 training camp battles that could define season

Who will run the ball between the tackles?

If you share the same mindset as me, the LA Rams will be investing a lot of time into finding their between-the-tackles running back. But it seemed to align rather simply a year ago. The Rams held three running backs in the rotation: Malcolm  Brown, Cam Akers, and Darrell Henderson. The team added two more rushers as well, Xaver Jones who appeared to harness the can-score-in-the-red-zone attributes of Malcolm Brown, and Raymond Calais who seemed to harness the attack-the-perimeter rushing of Darrell Henderson.

The only player who was not ‘backed up’ in 2020 appeared to be rookie Cam Akers. While the organization was also aiming at special teams, the addition of running back Jake Funk seemed to address the role of backing up Akers.  The team even added a second running back, Otis Anderson Jr., who is the fast elusive type of running back. So now the question is, who gets to run between the tackles?

That should be in good hands with running backs coach Thomas Brown. It was Brown who restored the Rams running game with no more pieces a year ago than he has available to him in 2021. Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown were coming back from a pedestrian 2019 season, and the Rams added Cam Akers. That group, as anonymous as they were, put up more rushing yards in their first five games than at any time since 1987. A group of unknowns running the daylights out of the NFL?  Yep.

Okay, let’s reset the board. Darrell Henderson will be the returning veteran like Malcolm Brown was a year ago. Jake Funk is the newly drafted running back. And Xavier Jones is the guy who nobody knows what his potential could be. But if we are to be historically accurate, we should expect better, rather than worse from him.

Much like defensive line coach Eric Henderson’s instilling that warrior mentality with his Dawgwork mantra, Thomas Brown delivers the same message to each and every running back in his care. What is that message? Well, let’s just say that the results were real in 2020, and they were spectacular. That same coach will surely get the best out of this running back group as well.

Keep Xavier Jones on the radar. He runs in the same style as Akers, staying shaded by offensive linemen until the last possible moment, and then breaking free to daylight and eventually the endzone. But if Jake Funk (and that glorious name) win a role on the offense, you won’t hear me mumbling.