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

Sophomore slump

The NFL doesn’t have sick days on game days. For kickers, that means come hell-or-high-water go out there, and kick the field goal. Is that hamstring bothering the guy? Just shut up and kick the field goal. There is a myriad of reasons why a solid performer can suddenly hit a temporary wall when performing for an NFL team.

But sometimes, kickers just miss. It happens. Kickers aren’t proud of the fact. Head coaches go nuts when it happens. But the probability of even the best veteran kicker succeeding on each kick is not 100 percent. That’s just how it goes sometimes.

But there are times in the high profile, high expectation field of field goal kicking where those misses start to string together.  Missing two or more field goals in a row is viewed as a slump in the NFL, and can lead to a variety of remedial actions. The least drastic is the player and coach working together to define the proper kicking actions/motions, comparing that to the actions/motions of the missed kicks, and correcting any variation from that standard.

Of course, there are the teams and coaches who start at releasing a player. That can be a bit challenging if the team does not have another kicker in the fold. By signing and having a player readily available, the Rams do not necessarily need to waive a kicker to get another one on the field. Thanks to the new flexible rules, NFL teams can activate up to two players off their practice squad to the active roster for two separate games during the NFL season.

If a kicker is fighting through a nagging sprain or hamstring strain, that bit of rest (about a week’s time) can prove to be a miracle cure. If it’s just a matter of bad mechanics, that extra bit of time is the equivalent of a bye week. All in all, the LA Rams will certainly have plenty of reasons to add another kicker to the roster. Now the only question that remains is…when?