LA Rams injury update: RB Raymond Calais injured foot, out 4-6 months

If you thought that the LA Rams would try to do the 2021 NFL season as-is in terms of the running backs on the roster, you will need to withdraw that assertion. As of now, these LA Rams are now down two of their six running backs, and the season has not even started yet. An entire third of the team’s running back roster has been sidelined, and the first snap of the regular season football is still three weeks away.

Yikes.

The news broke today thanks to NFL network’s Tom Pelissero, how reported on LA Rams running back/kick returner, Raymond Calais status today. Even as the Rams must now regroup over their running back contingency plan, they will also need to rethink who returns kickoffs for the team now.

Foot surgery is never a good thing for running backs or basketball players. The reason for this is the fact that the foot bones handle all of that tremendous torque of starting, stoping, and pivoting by the player. Basketball players and running backs are especially impacted by those types.

Rams roster

Los Angeles Rams

While full details are not yet available, I suspect that the four-six month recovery timeline does not include getting back up to full NFL playing strength. Even if the four-month best case scenario occurred, the Rams are past mid-August with just one preseason game remaining and three weeks before the start of the NFL season.  Nobody will likely say it at this point officially, but Raymond Calais will be hard-pressed to return to the Rams roster in time to make a positive impact this season.

Since the next wave of roster cuts happen in less than 48 hours, the Rams will likely not act in a knee-jerk reaction just yet. The team will likely feature Jake Funk, Xavier Jones, and Otis Anderson Jr. in the last preseason game. This will likely trigger the Rams to clear not only down to the 53-man roster limit, but perhaps even to 52 or even 51 players in anticipation of adding a running back and perhaps a special teams return specialist (or other shallow position on the roster).

These moments have been the occasion for Rams General Manager Les Snead to shine in the past, and there is no reason to doubt his ability to lead the personnel department in a manhunt for a suitable player or two from the waiver wires of 31 other NFL teams over the next ten days. Stay tuned folks!