St. Louis Rams: Who Gets Left Off the Gameday Roster Against Washington Redskins?
As the St. Louis Rams get prepared to play the Washington Redskins this week, they’ll have to make some tough decisions once again on who to sit down for Sunday’s game, as they’re required to designate seven of their 53 players as pregame inactives. The process will be slightly less tedious this week with running back Chase Reynolds and defensive end Eugene Sims injured, but with a roster that is deep with legitimate contributors in several spots (i.e. running back, wide receiver, and safety) and short in several others (defensive tackle, cornerback), it will be interesting to see how they manipulate the roster to maximize productivity.
The Rams do figure to have several players who missed last week’s opener, such as wide receiver Brian Quick and linebacker Daren Bates, back for the Redskins game, but that means there will be more tough decisions in terms of balancing the special teams units with contributors from scrimmage. Here’s a quick guess at who figures to miss the gameday roster cut on Sunday:
QB Sean Mannion
Mannion was a healthy scratch as the third quarterback last week, and he’ll likely continue to be for the entire season unless one of the Rams’ top two signal-callers get injured. He’ll soak up mental reps from the sideline in hopes of pushing for a spot on the active roster in 2016.
RB Todd Gurley
Gurley has been practicing with the first-team offense this week and looks like he has a chance to make his NFL debut against the Redskins, but the odds are still that the Rams will play it safe and let him get his first game action next week at home. Seeing as Quick was a healthy inactive last week, it would seem that the Rams will wait to unleash Gurley until they’re absolutely sure that there will be no side effects for their first-round pick.
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RB Chase Reynolds
Reynolds, perhaps the Rams’ most important special-teamer, suffered a knee injury in the opening moments of Sunday’s game and will be out at least this week, if not longer. He’ll be a big loss for the Rams’ special teams units, but they’ll have to rely on guys like Isaiah Pead and Bradley Marquez to step up in his absence.
OL Andrew Donnal
Donnal was an inactive against Seattle, and he’s probably the least likely player on the roster right now to suit up for a game in 2015. The rookie fourth-rounder is still working on developing play strength and was held back during training camp by a hand infection, so it’s difficult to imagine a scenario in which he would be asked to contribute anytime soon.
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OT Darrell Williams
Williams was a mildly surprising inactive last week, as it would have seemed more logical to have him up as the third tackle rather than dressing Cody Wichmann, who’d likely be the third backup guard off the bench behind Garrett Reynolds and Demetrius Rhaney. The undrafted rookie figures to be a healthy scratch once again this week due to the team’s surplus of linemen.
DE Eugene Sims
Sims suffered a knee injury in Week 1 and will be out against Washington. His absence should be a relatively significant obstacle for the Rams’ defensive line rotation to confront, but judging by the fact that they haven’t added another defensive lineman to the roster yet, it appears that Ethan Westbrooks, who has spent most of 2015 thus far working as a defensive tackle, will get whatever reps at end are left over that Robert Quinn, Chris Long, and William Hayes can’t handle.
Lynch was one of the standout special-teamers for the Rams during the preseason, but with Daren Bates presumably returning this week and so many designated special-teamers that are needed more than him, including Bates, Cody Davis, and Bradley Marquez, Lynch seems to be a logical candidate as the odd man out on a roster that’s shorthanded at several positions.