Despite a disappointing loss to the New York Jets in Week 15, the Los Angeles Rams still have all of their 2020 goals right in front of them to close out the season.
At 9-5, the Rams are a game behind the Seattle Seahawks (10-4) for first place in the NFC West. The two teams meet in Seattle in Week 16 though in a game that will essentially decide who wins the division. L.A. won the first matchup so would hold the tiebreaker with another win this weekend.
Unfortunately though, the Rams will be without a key player in running back Cam Akers after he suffered an ankle sprain in the loss to the Jets. Akers was able to battle through the pain and finish out the game, but Sean McVay revealed that he will be out this weekend and perhaps even longer, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“He is a war daddy, but he’s going to be out for at least the next week or so,” McVay said. “He’s a tough kid, man, the way he battled through, but he does have a high ankle sprain which is usually a couple weeks.”
Akers’ rookie season got off to a slow start after the Rams drafted him in the second round, although he has really started to come on in recent weeks. His production essentially earned him every-down back duties, which makes him tough to replace.
McVay is expecting both Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown to see action this weekend in his place:
“They’ll both get work,” McVay said, referring to Darrell Henderson Jr. and Malcolm Brown. “As far as the specifics, not really sure. We’re just getting into the initial parts of the gameplan. I mean, literally, we just got that information about Cam a couple hours ago, so it’s all relatively new. We’ll talk to those guys first and we’ll develop a gameplan, but I can tell you that both of those guys will be heavily involved.”
The Rams have been going with a running back by committee all season, so it is not like the two guys that will be taking Akers’ snaps will be seeing the field for the first time.
Akers has really established himself as the team’s best running back though, so hopefully he can get healthy in time for the Rams’ playoff run.
