What do the LA Rams have planned for rookie TE Roger ‘Agent’ Carter?

The LA Rams have a spot on their roster for a tight end who is willing to line up just about anywhere. The problem is that they were unable to address that role effectively when the team lost tight end, Johnny Mundt, to injury in the 2021 NFL season. Tight end Kendall Blanton was an effective blocker and could catch the occasional pass. Tight end Brycen Hopkins had the higher upside but had not proven his ability to catch the football consistently, nor to block at the level needed to play for the Rams.

And then the ultimate challenge, neither player had proven an ability to line up practically anywhere in the Rams offense and deliver a versatile but consistent level of play, whether that meant wide, tight, as an H-Back, as a power back, or even as a full back.

Let’s meet up

So the LA Rams went shopping after the NFL Draft and landed an ideally suited player for that versatile swiss-army knife type of role that the Rams offense loves to deploy. They identified a young football prospect out of Georgia State, a fullback/tight end

They signed Georgia State FB/TE Roger Carter. And more than one NFL analyst recognized the fit between player and offense.

And so, he joined the LA Rams roster.

Rams Roster: Lacking an Agent Carter

But joining and sticking with the Rams roster are two entirely different things. But there was something awfully intriguing about this young man, a point we noted in our UDFA signings article.

Special teams are a primary roster-maker for young players. While we may not have witnessed much from Roger Carter so far on the offense, catching just one of one passes thrown his way for a 14-yard completion, we certainly watch his special team’s prowess as he recovered a fumble and took it in for a touchdown.

You can bet that a special team’s touchdown had the coaches talking about Roger Carter after the game.

It’s pretty clear that, for now, the LA Rams are focused on running a three wide receiver formation for the majority of their offensive sets. That means that their two tight end formation, their 12-personnel package, may not get as much work this season as they had in the past. But that also creates a new opportunity for the Rams’ offense.

Is this the year that the Rams open the vault and pull out some fullback options for their offense? While he has not gotten a spot on the roster just yet, Roger Carter offers an entire spectrum of possibilities to the Rams’ offense if he makes the 53-man roster. Will he? Well, the Rams will definitely go with Tyler Higbee and now certainly Brycen Hopkins. Is there room for a third tight end? Perhaps not. But there could be room for a FB/TE who is a special teams specialist.

Stay tuned. With Kendall Blanton’s release, the odds for the Rams to keep UDFA FB/TE Roger Carter on the roster improve significantly.