Will The Los Angeles Rams Adjust The Running Back Room After Kyren Williams’ Costly Fumble?

Will The Los Angeles Rams Adjust The Running Back Room After Kyren Williams’ Costly Fumble?

[Music] What is up, Los Angeles? I am here today with Brock Vieiraa, Rams Insider from Sports Illustrated. I wanted to have him on the Rams skinny, talk about a few things that are going on in the Rams universe. We’ve got Kairen Williams, a lot of discussion around him. We’ve got cornerback trade talk. We’ve got, what else do we have? We’ve got some uh offensive line intrigue and injuries. But before that, just want to throw to my co-host here, Brock Vieira. How are we doing today? I’m doing good. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. Yeah, no problem, man. So, I met Brock out at Rams training camp. I believe it’s his first year covering the team. He’s doing a real bangup job, I have to say. Love what he’s putting out there. A real modern approach to uh kind of the written content side of things. and uh yeah, he’s uh he’s one of our insiders, one of our experts. So yeah, it’s fantastic. But before we get to that conversation, we have to talk about our sponsor. 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Okay, Brock, you put a a nice little article about Kairen Williams. Some of his teammates coming to his defense. Some other people out there on the Twitter universe not coming to his defense after a rough a rough fumble. What uh what’s been on your mind about Kairen Williams? What have you been hearing? Um, is there going to be any changes to the to the running back room? I anticipate zero changes to the running back room. Right now, the Ravs operate at a 6535 split. Of course, be it changed based based on various factors and things that happened throughout the course of the game. They’re afraid that the Ravs love to use of course as flow of the game. Despite Williams big-time fumble, hire I mean, sorry, Blake Corum didn’t do himself any favors, having a fumble on his own on a play that was simply, for lack of a better term, a lapse of concentration. At least with Williams’ situation, it was at least a forced fumble instead of a excusable turnover and for being blunt about it because of that. and plus Williams’ expanded role as a pass catcher and a blocker. Something that we saw helped the Rams not only advance up the field on Thursday night, but also finally cracked the code to the red zone. As I mentioned, I don’t expect any differences, but the volumes of snaps that he’s seen so far. When it comes to my take of Williams, I said it before, I say it I said it again. The fumble was inexcusable, but at the same time, I will show grace to a guy who got punched in the face by a dude that’s 300 pounds and Alfred Collins. I’m not saying anything about Collins. I think he was going for the football. Sometimes you’re just trying to make a play. But just because you wear a helmet, it doesn’t mean your jaws can’t get rocked. Regardless, both hands need to be on the football. and that is something that he needs to clean up because it is Kyron Williams. Of course, the narrative online and on Twitter is going to be highly negative and understandably so. However, the Rams team their teammates, they all know that when push comes to shove, Williams has been the guy they’ve been able to rely on for the past two seasons. He’s a guy that has ran up to the playoffs in back-to-back years with his thousand yard seasons and then becoming a focal point of an offense that couldn’t really move to end last season until they got into the playoffs. Plus, it’s one thing if Williams fumbled and then didn’t do anything else for the game. After that fumble, he responded big time with a hu with two huge catches in the fourth quarter on third and fourth down to extend the drive, putting Josh Cardi into field goal range. And then in overtime he had two big um catches as well. So like that whole that all that being said that’s the storyline of what’s happening with the Ravs. They remain confident in Williams. Williams himself is taking responsibility. I still feel confident in Williams. However, it’s understandable why a lot of people don’t and why he’s been clamoring for some changes. Yeah. Yeah. It’s such an interesting storyline to follow because in in reality this guy is the backbone of this team. You know, you look at you look at success rate on the ground this year. The Rams have the best success rate. Now, when you look at EPA, that drops off by a lot. Now, EPA considers explosive uh runs and and mistakes like fumbles uh in into its uh calculations. Um but that that ability to just pick up chunks, four, five yards, chunks of yard yardage like that has has been so uh so important to the offense. And you think about you think about Blake Cororm and so far this year he’s looked like he has a bit more of explosion in his game than Kairen Williams which was a huge knock coming out of last year and it almost feels like Kiran is not even what he was last year in terms of explosion. uh you know heading into the heading into the off seasonason after the draft I was really excited to see uh what Jarquz Hunter and I was really impressed with him at at training camp which is always good advice of you know let’s not get too hyped up on one guy uh at training camp because he looked he looked explosive he had the numbers to back it up and he also looked really good in in pass protection um but you know I saw today that it sounds like McVey isn’t going to change anything to your point. Um especially in regards to Hunter when he was asked specifically about Hunter, it sounds like uh there’s even some more reticence whereas he talked about a guy like um our guy Terren Ferguson, second round draft pick, you know that he’s only going to see more touches where with Hunter, it sounds like he’s got some your take on that. Yeah, I’ve you you hit it. You said it correctly. And to illust kind of illustrate your point more, I spoke to Blake Corm this season. First of all, phenomenal real estate mind, may I just add, but from a football standpoint, he he’s saying that the game, the typical athlete, quote, the game is slowing down for him. He’s seeing things better. But I believe him. And when you look back at his track record at Michigan, what was he great at? finding the holes before they develop, blasting through the holes with efficiency, and making the proper cut at the proper times. I think we’re finally starting to see him do that at the NFL level. The problem is I have questions whether this Rams offense is built to accompany his type of running style, especially in the fact that they use wide receivers as primary blockers. Whereas when you look back at his collegiate career, it was a high high tight end formation where the only type of wide receiver was Coulson Lovelin and that’s a receiving tight end. Of course, maybe if you want to throw the Terrence Ferguson in there as we mentioned him. When it comes to Draos Hunter, I’ve been asking that question all year long and the response is we love the way he’s developing. He’s not ready yet. And and that’s it. I don’t exactly understand what the hold up to play him is. You and I both saw it at training camp and I believe in two joint practices where Hunter was the most physical player arguably on the whole team, especially in the offense. I mean, there is a mentality to him that is gamechanging. Dare I say David Montgomery, like he’s very quick. He’s extremely good exploding offense cuts, which he makes very nice cuts. I do have some questions about the vision, but that will develop in time and I I have no worries about that developing. But when you look at those critical red zone situations, especially within 10 yards, going all the way back to week one, the Rams have lacked that power run game and that that that killer type of lock in instinct that we have seen from McV’s teams in the past where they can just hammer the ball in when they get into that critical area. We’ll use the passing game to set up, but when it’s time to play bully ball, let’s go get it. There’s many fingers we can point at or things we can point at as why, but the fact that they don’t have it and they refuse to go to the running back who I think could provide it, it’s just concerning. Yeah. I mean, it seems like McVey really wants to stick with this 6030 split and, you know, you’ve look you look at, you know, committee running back rooms, which maybe this one is, maybe it’s not. Maybe maybe we’re just looking at a bell cow situation, but you look at committee running back rooms in the past and they just kind of go with the one who has the hot hand and you know I don’t know if Blake Corm would have had the hot hand. I think Kairen Williams was looking pretty good against the NerS. Um but you know just some fluidity within that. I would like to see that as well, including Hunter, including more quorum. Uh, when when the timing is right, when when situations are are, you know, who whoever’s presenting, seems like they’ve got got the hot hand that day, let’s go let’s go in that direction. But I also think, you know, some of this has to do with this offensive line as well, which has been kind of a a lowhanging kind of a low simmering uh question mark for me as to why um it doesn’t look like it did in 2023 when Kevin Dodson first joined this team. And it just seemed like they were going to Kairen Williams and and Rob Havenstein and and uh Kevin Dodson were taking the world by storm uh with with Coleman Shelton at the at the center at that time. Um, and it it it just hasn’t it just isn’t hasn’t has hasn’t had that kind of crisp crispness and that um ease of of use um like it did in in that particular year. Now, there’s been injuries all over the place. Rob Havenstein missed last week, gave up nine pressures per PFF the week before. So, obviously dealing with something in that week as well. Kevin Dodson’s kind of been uh you know nicked up and and dinged up here and there as well. Uh strange situation going on with Justin Dedic and Steve Ovula. What are your thoughts? Are you in agreement that the the offensive line is a is a bit of a problem or are you where are you on that? I I mean I don’t know how you can say it’s not respectfully because I mean I I it’s confusing to me because I get a chance to see these guys operate every day. I see the way that they work. I see the way they prepare and then the product just never matches what you see in practice and I don’t understand why whether it’s styles fit miscommunication or or something else. Maybe it’s structurally within the offense. I I don’t know. But this offensive line at times has not shown up when they needed to in certain situations. I think the Tennessee game is kind of my biggest example. But in the state breath, there are times in where, especially in that fourth quarter, yes, it is helpful when you have a quarterback like Matthew Stafford who can read defenses well before the ball snap and is able to get the ball out quick and has those weapons to do so, but they’re keeping it protected for the most part. Yeah, sometimes you may get hit, but the ball is coming out and they’re moving up the field and you really can’t ask anything more when last season it was them not giving him that second that cost and everything against the Eagles. Moving on from that point, when it comes to the offensive line, I think what we’re seeing this year is a product of what’s been building for the last nine in the McVey era. When’s the last time the Rams has spent true top draft capital on an offensive lineman? The only one that comes to mind in my opinion is Steve Vila, the second round second round pick of course in 2023. Of in that same sentence, you have to recognize that they did trade a bunch of their first round pick. Actually, all of them except Jared first uh during that time snap sack in. But you look at alert Jackson, he was a UDFA guy. You look at Justin Deedish, same situation. Kevin Dodson was a player with the Pittsburgh Steelers for three years where they were able to take advantage of what was a bad situation in that in for him and that in Pittsburgh he came to LA and you know has really shine Ron Henstein they haven’t had to worry about that position because he locked it down since the franchise back in St. But after a long time when you go through all the guys that you developed and they start leaving like when Coleman Shelton left or Brian Allen or Roger Safold if you want to go all the way back or John Sullivan or this or that and they just keep on replacing them that continuity is not going to be there and that ability for guys to grow within that system to eventually take their place like we see in Philadelphia is also not there. So that that’s kind of why we are where we are now. How the Rams approach their offensive line moving forward, especially with these two first round picks in 2026 will define this next era of the McVey era as a snee era as well. But back to my main point, this is what happens when you don’t invest draft capital into your offensive line. And just to continue my point, I look at Andrew Witworth and his succession plan. When he got Witworth, he was incredible. Won super with him, Ravs legend, Hall of Famer. Nothing more needs to be said. After that, you paid Joe Note Boom to take over. It didn’t work out. It is what it is. But instead of investing in the draft, you got lucky with Alar Jackson. I think that they just been using that same train of thought for every position and now it’s it’s come back to Haunted. Yeah. Yeah. It’s I haven’t thought about the name Joe Note Boom in a few months now. So, I’m glad you brought him back up because that was a near disaster. um you know they they bet big on on on um on No Boom and then Aleric Jackson and kind of there for a little bit. It didn’t look like either one were gonna be able to make the step up and Ovula luckily for them was able to do that. Um yeah, so that that’s a fantastic point of of the construction of the offensive line kind of getting lucky in a lot of ways uh with those succession plans with the with the guys that they slotted in there. You know, Coleman Shelton didn’t have a great season last year. Nobody had a great season last year on the on the Chicago Bears de offense. So, you know, that was an interesting uh guy to bring back. Um I just I got to get your opinion on the Steve Ovula situation where it’s he’s been on the injury report, doesn’t seem to actually have an injury designation whatsoever, but maybe has been outplayed by Justin Dedic. Is is that your sense or is are you taking at face value? I’m taking it at face value. My my sense is this because it was a Thursday night game. Even though we was practicing, it’s one thing to practice, it’s another thing to be practiced, be mentally ready, physically fit, and also understand exactly what you need to do against this type of opponent, especially a defensive line that does what they do with Robert Salah structurally along within that front seven construction. That’s why I think they went with Justin because he had the game reps. There wasn’t going to be that uh rust on him. He understood exactly what the offense was doing. And to San Francisco’s detriment, they didn’t have that on paper entering the game that top interior pass rusher that would give them pause if regarding the Justin DJ Steve Ao argument. We spoke to McVey today and what he was saying is that Aila is good to play this week and he will get the start essentially as long as he takes care of business at practice. But let me say his exact quote on whether AA is expected to start. If he plays and practices the way I believe he’s capable of. Yes. So essentially if Steve AA he’ll play and that’s why I’m taking everything at face value. Yeah. Yeah. I maybe putting on a little bit of a conspiracy hat with this one too much. We just recorded our uh our injury update just a little bit ago where we I was just saying nope, he doesn’t have an injury. He got beat. So, we’ll we’ll see what happens. Uh you know, obviously to your point earlier, high draft pick, counting on him in a big way. Um so, let’s uh let’s get him back healthy and back into the lineup and playing. I mean, probably the the last the last big kind of question mark, big conversation piece coming out of this game was what’s happening at quarterback. Um, you know, McVey kind of alluded. I I saw Nate Atkins tweet of the Athletic um, you know, that he’s open that they’re open to adding quarterbacks uh, after having lost a Kella Witherspoon after it seems like maybe Emanuel Forbes hasn’t taken that big step uh, that a lot of people wanted to see him take. Um, is there a trade? Is there a free agent in this world? Are are the Rams of F them picks back and going after a Jaylen Ramsey 2.0? I I’m not sure that we’ve reached the FM picks era yet. Give it a couple weeks. I would say that if a trade is to be made, it will be after the I believe the week the trade deadline is week eight, right? If if I’m not mistaken, November 4th. Yeah. So, right around. Okay. So, so perfect. Okay. That matches my timeline. In my opinion, if a trade is to be made, it will be after the Jaguars game when they’re in London because the Raz have to fly out to Baltimore this week. They’re gonna spend the week in Baltimore and then they’re going to go to London. And that kind of week would give them the opportunity to bring somebody in and then like teach them exactly what they need to do with having two weeks of preparation before their next contest. So, I I don’t think there’s going to be a trade talk immediately. So, the current quarterback room has two more games to make their best impression. What I first off, shout out to my guy Nate Atkins. Phenomenal writer over there at the Athletic. Great dude. What I got from McVey statement was this. We need to look at everything. And I’m not exactly thinking that’s straight up personnel change. That could also be lineup changes. That could be structural changes, things of that nature. So, I’m pumping the brakes on an addition for right now because if an addition was to be made, I figured it would have been done with a Kella Witherspoon that was injury. Instead, they brought in Trey Brown who’s been a member of the special teams. My opinion, I want stuff on Gilmore. Free agent should be affordable. The narrative of of course Gilmore preventing McVey from winning his first Super Bowl. McVey preventing Gilmore from winning a Super Bowl last with the Vikings. They unite so both of them can win their second Super Bowl la. It’s it’s it’ll be heaven for a sports writer. I also like because he’s a structurally sound structurally sound player. The Rams don’t need to rely on him every single play. Like he’ll be there for the big ones. They have a strong rotation already. So whatever snaps he might put in, they could extend that threeman to a fourman if the ratio is roughly the same. if you only want Stefon Diggs out there for, you know, the big time plays or whatever it works out to. And Belich trained but has that uh ruggedness from his time in Buffalo, understand different systems, intelligent, what what more could you want from him? What I think is going to happen Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. What I think is going to happen is if they if if they pick up a quarterback, it will be one from the AFC North. I think it’s probably going to come down to either Denzel Ward or Tam Taylor Britt if they go out and trade for a corner, but in the same breath, I don’t think that they want to waste any of the first round picks. So, they would have to get good value for one of those players. Yeah, a guy I follow does a fantastic substack, Oliver Connelly, the read optional, uh, fantastic follow uh on on Substack for sure. He was teasing that maybe they they are in the FM picks era still and they’re gonna swing big for a guy like uh Sas Gardner who’s on the 0 and5 uh Jets who who are going through yet another rebuild and and and maybe going to end up another three years before they’re relevant at all. Um that would take a lot of a lot of picks to unmore that guy. Uh but kind of a fun one to consider. That would be that Jaylen Ramsey 2.0. Not saying it’s happening. I think they should make the phone call, see what the what the cost is uh just to see what that is. But I like the Stefon Gilmore. Um I I kind of banging the table for him the last couple years even though at his advanced age, which he’s still like a decade younger than me. Um still playing some good ball, still has uh you know, still has all those wy veteran moves and just enough juice to to kind of keep up with all these wide receivers. And I think it would be a good fit um especially within a young defense u and good size too. They’ve just they’ve just lacked that ability without a kilo to really man up against some of these bigger guys. Um you know we all know what happened with AJ Brown in that game. So yeah. Um any any parting thoughts uh on this Rams team heading into what should be a pretty uh critical and desperate uh Ravens game? Yeah. So, first off, I never got a chance to touch on Emanuel Forbes. And I think that you hit it when you talked about Taylor Witherspoon, but Forbes and Witherspoon were on the field together. Forbes looked calm. He looked confident because Aello was taking on some of those bigger physical threats. However, they had to match it up. And then Forbes was able to be comfortable in his role with a safety over the top playing strong Rams defense. And with that being gone, I think that he’s been elevated to a role that he’s not comfortable in and that has severely harmed his initial development. But that that’s just my take on Emanuel Forms. When it comes to the rest of the team, I would love to see an addition of Sauce Gardner. I mean, for me, that’d be fun to talk to S Gardner every day, write about him, watch how he works, you know, and then, of course, watch how he performs on game day. Problem with that trade is one, you’re definitely going to have to trade at least one of your fresh for him, if not both, depending on what the Jets want. they have a brand new head coach there who defensive minded which is also going to hurt uh you know the ability to acquire Gardner and then the other aspect is the massive extension that he signed being that the 2023 class with Byron Young and Kobe Turner they’re about to enter their first window of extensions and then you also have guys like Quincy Leech and Nate Ladman who have deals expect that who who have deals expiring at the end of the season and of course how all that kind of money works My last parting thought about this team is that I think that this loss had to happen. This team was has been flying way close to the sun since the start of the season. They got lucky against the Texans. They got lucky against the Titans and they definitely got lucky against the Colts with Adam Mitchell giving up 14 points of his own. This is the exact type of game that is going to, I think, help them blend more as a unit and just play more complimentary football because there’s times the defense looks spectacular and the offense isn’t there, but then by the time the offense gets there in the fourth quarter, the defense is all tired and everything and they presented all their unique looks. So, the other opposing offense picking them apart. This is going to I think as they get to lock in, they’re going to be much stronger in the first half. I think they’re going to cruise to a lot more victories in the second half than were initially expecting. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see where they are heading into the buy. Um should still have a positive record. Uh but that’s always been a big point of of transition for McVey. And to your point about um Aello being out, I also I also think that changed how the safeties were able to play where I feel like Jaylen McCulla and um Cam Kinchins were able to kind of free range a little bit. Um and and and just kind of ball hawk, which is what they’re both really fantastic at. Um so I think that I think that changed a bit as well. You know, some of the math changes that happened when Nella went out. uh tell the tell the folks how they can get how they can find you and uh read you and follow you and all that good stuff. Of course. Well, what I want to say thank you so much for having me on, my man. I this was a lot of fun. Thank you so much for everyone that’s listening. You can find me on Twitter at Brock Vieira. V R O C K V I E R R A. And for my work, you can check us out at Los Angeles Rams onsi. That’s the website. And it’s also our handle for Twitter and Facebook or you can look us up Los Angeles RAS Insider on SI. Thank you guys. Yeah, you bet. Thanks guys for uh tuning in uh listening to all this. Uh he’s he’s fantastic. Follow him. Uh you you guys know where to find us. Rams LFB across all all channels. LFBnetwork.com. Go click on some stuff. Uh subscribe uh if you’re not yet. We’re so close to the 2000. We we wanted to get there before the season. didn’t happen, but uh really appreciate it. Uh definitely tell your friends about us. Uh it’s the best way to help us grow. And uh go check out Sleeper Fantasy. Download that uh Rams LFB, one word. Go get that. Have some fun uh playing some daily fantasy. Until next time, we’ll see you soon.

Sports Illustrated’s Brock Vierra joins Skinny T to break down the upcoming week for the Los Angeles Rams. Topics discussed include:

– Anticipated changes to the Rams’ backfield given the fumbling struggles of Kyren Williams
– Offensive Line issues, including Steve Avila’s injury
– Cornerback trade free agent possibilities

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Sean McVay is the Los Angeles Rams’ Football Head Coach as the team heads into the 2025 NFL Season, looking to build upon their playoff divisional appearance from one year ago. Matthew Stafford is back at quarterback, and he will lead the Rams throughout the season with Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, and Kyren Williams. Jared Verse and Braden Fiske will look to build upon stellar rookie campaigns on defense for the Rams.

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