LA Rams: 3 reasons to add another placekicker to practice squad

Emergency placekicker

As stated earlier, the introduction of COVID-19 testing into the pregame protocols has created a bit of a conundrum for NFL roster management. The problem now is that even vaccinated individuals can contract and transmit the disease, particularly the newest strains that seem to be even more contagious.

Meanwhile, the new vaccines are helping to temper, or even eliminate symptoms. So players may contract the disease until being tested on game day. If positive, even the rare false positive, protocols require that person to be quarantined. On game day, as the Rams can attest to thanks to their punter situation, the loss of a kicker can translate into points off of the scoreboard.

There currently is no emergency kicker for the Rams, but that won’t remain the case. Even as the Rams prune their roster down to the 53-player mandated limit, the personnel department will be scanning the waiver wire for an emergency kicker. There will be plenty of placekickers released, and the Rams can also look into collegiate kickers who were never picked up by an NFL team.

Placekickers do two things for an NFL team. They kick the football through the uprights for points, no matter what the distance. Secondly, they boot the ball to the opposing team during a kickoff. Players who remain proficient at both skills find it easy to sustain those skills once acquired. But if the ability is never acquired, not having a kicker can prove to be disastrous for an NFL team.