Reason to hope for dramatic restart for LA Rams RB Cam Akers

The reboot for LA Rams RB Cam Akers to end the 2021 NFL season did not go as planned. For starters, it was the right thing to do. Rather than go through the entire offseason with no data, the LA Rams have some data to work with. Of course, it was not the type of experience or performance that either Akers or the team wished for.

But there it is. Standing in the record books. 73 rushes for 175 yards and no touchdowns. That’s an average of just under 2.4 yards per rushing attempt. That is just 50 percent of his 4.8 yards per attempt average from 2021 and gives everyone cause for concern. Concern? Yes. Panic? No.

Akers did not lose his role in this offense due to some disappointing outings in the NFL Playoffs. Nobody on the Rams offense was chewing up the yards on the ground. It was a team issue, not a Cam issue. But it was enough of a matter to flag the dynamics of the ground game. Whether it was being out of synch, out of practice, or out of the right mindset, the Rams failed at one of their most fundamental weapons when they needed it most.

Rehabbing Rams’ Cam’s injuries

The Rams failed to run the ball when they needed to. So now it’s more than a reboot. The LA Rams are running the NFL equivalent of diagnostics on their ground game. But an extremely positive sign is that the lead runner, Cam Akers, is on board with that diagnosing the issue as well.

Recovery from a significant sports injury is different for everyone, particularly because correcting the injury takes two or three steps to restore the body to its original form. The first step is the optional one – surgery. Not all injuries require surgery.

The second step is the body’s ability to heal. Surgery simply sets the body’s own healing ability to start with a clean slate. Bones, soft tissue, muscles, and even skin are programmed to heal when an injury occurs. In most cases, the body heals all the way back if there is sufficient rest, blood supply, and rehabilitative therapy.

Final step

The third and final step of any injury is the mental aspect of healing. Can the player learn to trust his body to do what he wants it to do again? Right now, that’s the part that we are at with Cam Akers. Not only must Cam Akers be willing to try again. But he must be willing to retrain his mind and body to work instinctively at running with the football once more.

So far, it appears that Cam Akers is taking the right approach. Rather than denying any problems, or being timid about putting everything on track again, he is acknowledging the issue and dealing with it with all of the lessons that he learned through his 2021 rehab.

This is a very positive development in Rams news stories so far. Without an acknowledgment of something being wrong, nobody is working to correct it. This tells me that there is a fix on the way. It also tells me that the LA Rams may add a fresh RB to the team in the 2022 NFL Draft.

Most of all, this latest development tells me that Cam Akers is in the right frame of mind to do the job. As we just discussed, that is the final and toughest battle of the healing process for a professional athlete. Looks like LA Rams RB Cam Akers is truly on his way back now.