St. Louis Rams Shake Up Practice Squad, Bring Back Brandon McGee

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The St. Louis Rams shook up their practice squad on Tuesday afternoon as they began preparation for their Week 2 matchup against the Washington Redskins. Safety Jacob Hagen and cornerback Trovon Reed were released, while cornerbacks Brandon McGee and Melvin White were added to the 10-man practice squad. McGee and White are both more viable options to come up to the 53-man roster and contribute should the Rams need another corner soon with Trumaine Johnson coming off a concussion and just three other cornerbacks on the roster.

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Hagen had made some nice plays during the preseason, but he was expendable due to his status as the Rams’ seventh safety, stuck behind the five on the active roster plus 2014 seventh-rounder Christian Bryant, who is also on the practice squad. Reed, a 6-foot, 190-pound undrafted rookie out of Auburn, was a semi-surprising inclusion on the Rams’ initial practice squad last week, as he had joined the team midway through training camp and didn’t really do anything that stood out as spectacular during the preseason. As it turns out, though, his stint in St. Louis lasted just one extra week, as the Rams have now added two NFL-tested corners to replace him.

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McGee, who was selected out of Miami by the Rams in the fifth round of the 2013 draft, was released during the final cutdown to 53 players, but he now returns to the organization after just one week away. The 5-foot-11, 193-pounder has been almost constantly injured during his Rams career thus far; in fact, the leading factor in his release was the fact that he missed almost all of training camp this year with a foot injury. He’s apparently healthy to practice now, though, and with 17 NFL games under his belt, he’s a more reliable emergency backup at corner than Reed.

White, a 25-year-old former undrafted free agent, is actually quite the coup for the Rams’ practice squad. The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder has started 17 games over the past two years for the Carolina Panthers, playing in 30 overall. He has a total of 83 tackles and three interceptions over that time, one of which was returned for a touchdown in 2013. White was surprisingly released in the Panthers’ first round of cuts this year, but with the Rams possessing such little depth at the cornerback position, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see him move up to the active roster later this season.

Next: St. Louis Rams: Week One Grades