5 Rams prospects who are fighting not to be cut going into the summer

Kicker Tanner Brown

It was obvious from the timing of his signing that the Rams front office signed former kicker Tanner Brown to a Reserve/Future contract to ensure that this team would have at least a legitimate prospect on the roster capable of kicking field goals. But the team already had an eye on the prize from the 2024 NFL Draft, and may have drafted the best rookie available in Stanford's former kicker Joshua Karty.

As Karty continues to impress coaches, commentators, and analysts, Brown's chances of carving out a role of the team's roster this season are beginning to fade. While the ideal situation for the team's training camp is to carry two kickers into preseason and let both prospects have a shot at kicking field goals and extra points in simulated NFL game conditions, the team may not adhere to that plan.

In 2023, rookie kicker Christopher Dunn was released relatively early in the process.

That has, in turn, placed a great deal of pressure on Tanner Brown to show up and wow the coaching staff quickly this season. Fair or unfair, Joshua Karty arrived to the team this year with a host of solid endorsements that tout him as one of the best kicking prospects to join the NFL in the last five or ten years. Even if he does not deliver to that level instantly, he will be given multiple opportunities by the coaches to ensure that they have exhausted all chances.

Brown, on the other hand, must perform to a level that convinces coaches that cutting him from the team a year ago was a mistake. That type of convincing is going to be very difficult to come by. The team invested a draft pick to select Karty to this team. Brown has to prove himself to be worth more to the team to consider keeping him on the roster over Karty. That is a lot of work in not a lot of time.