LA Rams Training Camp: Jake Funk and handling concern for RBs knees

Rotational role running back

Such is the game of football, and perhaps that is the way the team looks at their rotational roles on the team. Do the Rams see players with knee injuries in some form of percentage rotational role? I mean, if the team can sign or draft a young player whose injuries create lower ceilings in terms of the number of plays on the field per season, does the team still take a chance at drafting that player?

Los Angeles Rams

I’m not really certain. But they could, and it could make sense. If the Rams see a need for a rotational player, and a medical flag limits the candidate to a rotational role, does that alignment encourage the team to act by adding that player?

If that truly was the plan, then the team has uncovered perhaps the ideal fit.  You see, the LA Rams have added another player with knee concerns, a running back out of the University of Maryland name Jake Funk. Funk was medically flagged in the 2021 NFL Draft thanks to two separate ACL injuries to the same knee in college. But he did put on an incredible senior season in 2020, after the injuries, that was promising enough to earn him a draftable grade per his NFL Draft profile.

He is a 5-foot-10 205-pound running back who not only displayed the ability to run the ball as a Terrapin but to pull away from defenders. That same speed with the ball in his hands projects him as an ideal special teams player for the NFL, a role the Rams most certainly valued in the young man.  The team certainly needs help in that area. But with the untimely injury to running back Cam Akers, the LA Rams will need to give a solid look at whether Funk can help in that area as well.