6 LA Rams players who could be playing their last season in horns

Who is at risk of playing their last year for the LA Rams?

Veteran P Riley Dixon is certainly at risk of playing his first, last, and only year for the LA Rams. Such is the life of an NFL punter.  And we’re not intentionally pulling the plug on the guy before he even steps onto the football field.

We’re just pointing to the reality of the LA Rams roster and the needs of both the 2022 NFL season and the future of the team’s roster. A one-year contract for a veteran special teamer, particularly in the case of a new face to the team, is an almost certain ‘prove-it’ deal that can be severed after just one poor performance.

No pressure, huh?

Dixon is a veteran, which means he understands that he is only as valuable to his team as his last punt. Over the course of the 2021 NFL season, his games punts averaged as little as 36.75 yards per punt, up to 54.00 yards per punt. With 74 punts in one season, and averaging 44.36 yards, he certainly performed well enough to be added to the Rams roster to compete for playing time this year.

And I don’t mean to write him off into oblivion too hastily. He has been among the NFL’s Top-10 punters in each of the last two seasons in terms of volume. So he’s had lots of work recently. But two flags appear when examining his stats. First, he has had two NFL seasons with multiple blocked punts – 2017 and 2019. And the other area of concern is the fact that he has averaged fewer yards per punt in each of the past two seasons (44.8 and 44.4, respectively) than his 45.3 career average.