Will LA Rams give kickoff duties to their new punter?

The LA Rams cleaned the slate for their special teams as the team hired a new Special Teams Coordinator Chase Blackburn. But, have the LA Rams some new wrinkles in their special team formulation for the 2023 NFL season? Perhaps, as we will soon discuss in this article.

The Rams roster faced pressure from all sides, and as a result, this was unable to make a fair market value offer to extend veteran Pro Bowl kicker Matt Gay. Whether or not the team would have liked to extend punter Riley Dixon is another story. But the outcome of financial pressure is that the LA Rams were simply unable to bring back their special team veterans.

And so the team had to restock their shelves with special team specialists. Their first move to do so was drafting Wingate punter Ethan Evans. Not only is Division II punter Ethan Evans blessed with a leg that can put incredible hang time into his punts, but he also has the ability to kick off of a kicking tee and send the football deep into or beyond the end zone.

The LA Rams needed to 'get good' at both punting and stay good at place kicking. The Rams did not invest another draft pick in special teams, but the team did sign up two kickers after the draft. The Rams signed up NC State placekicker Christopher Dunn and Oklahoma State placekicker Tanner Brown.

Both Dunn and Brown are incredibly accurate, but what about that booming kickoff that negates returns? Well, the Rams may have a trick up their sleeve as the next video discusses:

Could the Rams limit their placekicker to field goal duties alone, and repurpose their punter to punting and kicking off?

It's just crazy enough to work. If the Rams can focus on getting field goals from their kicker, and let their new strong-legged punter can get great hang time on both punts and kickoffs, this team may be onto something. We'd talked about how this year's special teams made up of all rookies truly have the chance to become special in 2023.