Kids today. They’ve seen so much.
A parent’s lament is a football coach’s reason
for confidence in the case of Sean McVay and the Rams, who unveiled a roster for the 2020 season on Saturday that trends toward well-seasoned youth.
Of the 53 players on the Rams’ active roster after a final round of cuts, 26 are going into their first or second NFL season, including at least a half-dozen in line for starting jobs or backup roles at spotlight positions.
The team will depend on them instead of veterans they might have tried to bring in to replace departed stars.
“The feel I get is it’s a lot more youthful,” safety John Johnson said of the team that opens the season next Sunday night at SoFi Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys.
“That’s kind of a good thing to me. You’ve got guys who are going to give it their all every play, every snap, hopefully for the whole season.”
But McVay emphasized that the roster has a mix of younger and older players, and that many of the kids have experience, one beneficial byproduct of injuries during the Rams’ 9-7 season in 2019.
“I think we’ve got some guys that are young players, but they’re mature football players,” McVay said, using the offensive line as an example.
“It’s not like they’re going into their second year where they’re just reserve backup linemen who haven’t gotten on the grass and played meaningful snaps.”
The Rams waived nine players before Saturday’s deadline for teams to reduce rosters, releasing inside linebacker Clay Johnston, a seventh-round pick who was the only 2020 draft choice cut; cornerback Dont’e Deayon and linebackers Justin Lawler and Natrez Patrick, all of whom saw action in 2019; defensive lineman Marquise Copeland, who was on the practice squad last season; and quarterback Bryce Perkins, defensive lineman Jonah Williams and Michael Hoecht and linebacker Christian Roseboom.
None was a big surprise. The locker room does lose some personality with the cuts of Johntson and Deayon, whom fans got to know on HBO’s “Hard Knocks.”
Waiving Johnston, and putting Travin Howard (knee) on season-long injured reserve, leaves the Rams with only three inside linebackers: Micah Kiser, Troy Reeder and Kenny Young, who begin their second, second and third NFL seasons, respectively.
But that could change.
The Rams’ 53-man active roster actually will have only 52 after defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson, who was diagnosed with what is reported to be a cardiovascular condition at the start of training camp, goes on the reserve/non-football-injury list.
McVay said he and general manager Les Snead will look at other teams’ waiver lists for a player they can use to fill the open spot. Otherwise, they would bring back one of the players they waived the past two days.
The Rams cut 17 players Friday, when the big news was rookie kicker Samuel Sloman emerging from a three-man competition to replace Greg Zuerlein.
Sloman, drafted in the seventh round, turns 23 on Sept. 19. He said Saturday he trained to withstand pressure at Miami (Ohio) by practicing in the wind and other adverse conditions, “making practice harder than a game.”
“I think something that helped me a lot in college that helped with that was talking about being comfortable being uncomfortable,” Sloman said.
McVay said waived kickers Lirim Hajrullahu and Austin MacGinnis are not among the players the Rams will try to keep for their 16-man practice squad.
One player they clearly will try to keep is Perkins, the undrafted rookie quarterback from Virginia. As things stand, Jared Goff’s backup on the active roster is John Wolford, a practice-squad player in 2019.
The Rams chose undrafted rookie Xavier Jones (SMU) over third-year player John Kelly to be their fourth running back behind rookie Cam Akers, second-year Darrell Henderson and sixth-year Malcolm Brown, who will combine to try to replace Todd Gurley.
The Rams went into Week 1 with 19 first- and second-year pros in their Super Bowl season of 2018, and 20 in 2019. This year, that number would be 26.
Among the first- and second-year players they’re counting on to help replace ex-Ram veterans: Akers, Henderson, wide receiver Van Jefferson, outside linebacker Terrell Lewis, Kiser at inside linebacker, and defensive backs Taylor Rapp, Terrell Burgess and Jordan Fuller.
Johnson, a relative graybeard on the defense going into his fourth season at safety, said the Rams are young in a good way.
“We’ve all been here, we’ve all been repping,” Johnson said. “We’ll be ready to go.”
Here’s the Rams’ 53-man active roster:
QB: Jared Goff, John Wolford
RB: Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, Malcolm Brown, Xavier Jones
WR: Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp, Josh Reynolds, Van Jefferson, Nsimba Webster, Trishton Jackson
TE: Tyler Higbee, Gerald Everett, Johnny Mundt, Brycen Hopkins
OL: Andrew Whitworth, Rob Havenstein, Austin Blythe, Austin Corbett, Joe Noteboom, Bobby Evans, David Edwards, Brian Allen, Coleman Shelton, Tremayne Anchrum
DL: Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers, Sebastian Joseph-Day, Morgan Fox, Greg Gaines, A’Shawn Robinson (active/non-football-injury list), Eric Banks
OLB: Leonard Floyd, Samson Ebukam, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, Terrell Lewis, Jachai Polite
ILB: Micah Kiser, Kenny Young, Troy Reeder, Travin Howard (injured)
CB: Jalen Ramsey, Troy Hill, David Long, Darious Williams
S: John Johnson, Taylor Rapp, Terrell Burgess, Jordan Fuller, Nick Scott
K: Samuel Sloman
P: Johnny Hekker
LS: Jake McQuaide
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