LA Rams move WR Robert Woods to IR and other Rams roster moves

It is now official. The LA Rams have officially assigned veteran wide receiver Robert Woods to injured reserve. It was not a surprising move, as he was already reported to have suffered a season-ending ACL injury just before the team faced the San Francisco 49ers in Week 10.

But no amount of emotional preparedness can stave off the inevitable heartbreak when the news is made official.  And on the day before Thanksgiving, the official announcement was made.

So now the challenge is, where does that leave the receiver roster?

For now, these LA Rams will try to make a go of it with Cooper Kupp, Van Jefferson, Odell Beckham Jr., Ben Skowronek, and J.J. Koski. The team did not try to add one more offensive weapon to round out six receivers and did not try to pick up a former player off another team’s practice squad, like Trishton Jackson.

Instead, the team signed defensive lineman Marquise Copeland to the team’s active roster.

In a follow-up move, the team signed defensive lineman Marquise Copeland to the team’s active 53-man roster. Copeland is a somewhat delayed fill of to roster spot once held by Sebastian Joseph Day, and the move restores the roster to six down defensive lineman.

Rams roster ‘correction’

If you do a rote count of the LA Rams roster on the team’s official website, you will find that the players on the active roster number 54 players currently, while the practice squad players currently number 15+1.  That suggests that the website has mistakenly categorized a practice squad player on the active 53-man roster.

The most likely miscategorized player is defensive back Tyler Hall, who was activated from the practice squad on October 30, 2021, but never shown as returned to the practice squad. To date, we have no indication of the team signing him to the active roster.

Instead, we know that the team did sign 6-foot-3, 226-pound linebacker Anthony Hines to the practice squad. Hines hails out of Texas A&M and did not hear his name called in the 2021 NFL Draft. He is the epitome of ‘raw’, as he was redshirted in 2018, after playing in 2017 as a promising young linebacker. He flashed true NFL starting potential in 2019 but did not play football in 2020 due to COVID-19 concerns.

Hines has the right size to become a very versatile player in the NFL, with the length to play as an outside linebacker, but the strength and background to play in the middle of the field. While he will likely be ‘under construction,’ for 2021, he is a curious and intriguing addition to the Rams roster.