LA Rams RB Darrell Henderson new injury imperils his status

The Rams roster needs a true RB2

Whether bubble-wrapped or thrown to the wolves, the story seems to be the same. There is a weekly injury status of Darrell Henderson Jr. of ‘questionable’ that seems to carry over from week to week.

I love Henderson’s raw explosiveness. If he is 100 percent, he can pile up 100+ rushing yards pretty quickly, and that in itself has an incredibly therapeutic effect for all three phases of the Rams game. But he is simply not a fit as an RB2. He is a change of pace guy, a player who is only as good as his body and health allows him to be.

Henderson is a rusher who can change the tempo of the offense, move the chains, get in and make things happen, but who must then be pulled out of the game. If he is not injured in the game, overworking him will trigger injuries in practices that follow or the following week’s game.

Winter hibernation

But as many ways that Henderson can alter a game’s momentum in the fall, he wanes in his availability as winter approaches. At the point of the season when games become more and more important as NFL teams jockey for NFL Playoff berths, the Rams have found themselves unable to rely upon Henderson.

The second running back on the depth chart must be able to step in for the team in those situations. It’s not some utopian perfect world vision that dictates that. It’s just the basic foundation of the sport and the timetable. It’s simply how the NFL schedule has been laid out from the beginning of the sport.  To be ‘that guy,’ a player must answer the bell when the team needs him.

Henderson can play, yes. But when it comes down to it, he cannot seem to answer that bell. In the end, that poses a Catch-22 type of problem for the LA Rams front office.