As LA Rams watch, Christian Rozeboom 3rd LB leaves at roster cuts

This feels like an eight-track tape and a bad one at that. It’s the same ole tune playing over and over. If you don’t recognize the reference, an 8 track tape was, well on second thought, it was old. Where this is all going is the fact that for the third consecutive season in a row, the LA Rams have gone to roster cuts faced with a lack of open roster spots, waived a promising young inside linebacker with every intention of signing him back to the team’s practice squad, but watching helplessly as he signs elsewhere.

In 2019, the young linebacker for the LA Rams was Dakota Allen, who signed on with the Las Vegas Raiders despite our protests to keep him on the 53-man roster. It happened once more in 2020 when the LA Rams waived ILB Clay Johnston with every intention of signing him to the practice squad. Instead, he followed his heart and signed on with the Carolina Panthers practice squad to reunite with his father.

Et Tu, Rozeboom?

This year, it was Christian Rozeboom’s turn to sign on elsewhere. He took the same career fork in the road as former LA Rams offensive center and signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, albeit their practice squad.

While some will think nothing of this event, it may hold a bit more bearing on the LA Rams’ future at the inside linebacker position than you may think. Of the players on the current 53-man roster, only Ernest Jones is contracted beyond the end of the 2021 season.

2022 Rams Roster holds opportunity

With that in mind, the team was hoping that the steady development and progress demonstrated by Rozeboom this year would continue with the team throughout the season and be ready to assume a starting role in 2022. He was already showing flashes of performance that suggested that he would be more than ready when any opportunity opened up to him in the future.

But in the end, impatience wins over patience. For one more inside linebacker nurtured by the LA Rams’ coaching staff, the grass is greener elsewhere for a third consecutive season. In the grand scheme of roster strategy, the Rams logjam with four players on the same contractual timetable proved to be an impediment to creating opportunities for players who are needed to take on a future starting role with the team.

That is three seasons in a row with the same ending. The same ole woeful song about a player with potential leaving the Rams to seek their NFL careers elsewhere. It sounds like a song that keeps repeating over and over. I hope the LA Rams figure it out soon because that song is getting really old really fast.