The plot over LA Rams running back Cam Akers thickens further

The LA Rams and RB Cam Akers are not on the same page, and the sudden and mysterious circumstances surrounding his falling into inactivity have been further clouded by the team commenting that the matter was a personal issue.

Of course, tensions have been running quite high throughout the LA Rams locker room. The performance of the offense, the unit that is personally handled by head coach Sean McVay, has been embarrassingly bad. It doesn’t help the current struggles across the offense to improve with the ongoing lackluster performance of running back Cam Akers.

We focused on Akers’s struggles this year, a running back who seems to exhibit the signs that naturally follow the path of a professional athlete after a significant Achilles Tendon injury. Whether it was just a coincidence in the timing or the fact that the article raised questions that nobody dared to ask, 24 hours later the news of Akers not practicing or playing in Week 6 was reported.

Another breadcrumb drops

Now. it seems that additional information is available. The matter is not personal as originally reported. Now, it seems as though the matter is football related as per CBS Sports NFL Insider Josina Anderson:

Some fans are following the breadcrumbs of information shared over RB Cam Akers to conclude that a trade may be imminent and that Akers is being shelved while the terms of that potential agreement are sorted out or abandoned.

But I think it’s more along the lines of the dispute that the Rams faced with WR DeSean Jackson last year. At that time, Jackson was unhappy with his light usage. I suspect that 51 rushing attempts in five games, averaging just 10 carries per game, is not exactly what Cam Akers expected this season.  That type of ‘play me’ dispute has historically not resulted in a positive outcome for the player.

We know that the Rams eventually released DeSean Jackson after failed attempts to negotiate a trade. I suspect that the most likely scenario for the LA Rams and Cam Akers falls into that sort of category. I could be wrong, but the team has certainly been frustrated on multiple fronts this season, and the events that have played out seem to fit the play-me scenario more than others that I’ve read so far.

Is this a point of no return for the LA Rams and Cam Akers? If suspicions are correct, I think so. The team has not hesitated to part ways with unhappy players. Is RB Cam Akers’s NFL career in peril? I don’t think so. He simply needs an NFL team with a strong offensive line and enough patience to allow him to sort through this current chapter.