LA Rams surprisingly waive ILB Travin Howard

The LA Rams signed free agent ILB Travin Howard to a one-year $2.54 million deal in March 2022. But by June 2022, the same ILB Travin Howard was cut by the team. What should we make of that? Is there something amiss here? Did Howard fail to live up to the team’s expectations already? Or was it a failure to pass a medical exam? Or worse yet, buyer’s remorse?

In all honesty, it was none of those things. The LA Rams are as meticulous over their roster as they are with their dollars and cents. The most logical, if unremarkable, explanation is that the LA Rams simply had better ways to spend that $2.54 million. For example, the LA Rams are getting veteran inside linebacker Bobby Wagner at a cost of $2.5 million this year.

So you could say that Travin Howard lost his job to veteran Bobby Wagner already.

Just three months after signing with the Rams, Travin Howard is looking for an NFL team to play for once more.

Rams roster moves

That is not to say that Travin Howard is not a great role player. In fact, he was the go-to guy as the Rams struggled with an ever-mounting number of injuries across the defense last year. Howard played in all four NFL Playoff games for the Rams defense and started in two of those games.  He was very effective in those games as well. He put up 10 tackles, three deflected passes, one huge tackle for a loss, and even had an interception.

Which interception was that? The one that ended the NFC Championship game against the rival San Francisco 49ers, that’s which one.

In the end, the LA Rams are still fighting the battle of finances, are still trying to assemble the best Rams roster, and are still working at meeting the needs of the upcoming season.

The Rams could still re-sign Howard to a less expensive deal, and in the process save the impact of about $1.7 million in saving to the team’s salary cap. If Howard is unwilling to return at that deep discount, the Rams will likely look to add another inside linebacker.  The Rams roster currently has five ILBs on the roster, which is just one more than the expected 53-man roster is expected to carry.

Hopefully, the team will find a way to get Howard back on the Rams roster. He proved to be one of the team’s unsung heroes from 2021. I would hope that he has a place in the team’s plans for 2022.