Mike McAllister

Wednesday NFL Transactions: NFC West

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These 49ersCardinalsRams and Seahawks moves are noted below.

Arizona Cardinals

Signed:

Claimed:

Signed to practice squad:

Los Angeles Rams

Signed:

Claimed:

Waived:

Placed on IR:

Signed to practice squad:

San Francisco 49ers

Signed:

Claimed:

Waived:

Placed on IR:

Signed to practice squad:

Seattle Seahawks

Signed:

Claimed:

Signed to practice squad:

Rams Pare Roster To Initial 53

Here is how the Rams’ initial 53-man roster looks ahead of Sean McVay‘s eighth season:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

Placed on IR:

Placed on IR/return designation:

Despite Los Angeles trading Ernest Jones to the Titans, McVay said the team is not looking around at inside linebacker. The Rams kept kept five off-ball LBs — Christian Rozeboom, Troy Reeder, Jacob Hummel, Omar Speights and Elias Neal — and McVay labeled Rozeboom and Reeder as the team’s expected starters. Rozeboom, a former UDFA out of South Dakota State, has made five starts in his three-season career. Reeder, whom the Rams brought back last year after he spent 2022 with the Chargers, has made 31 career starts. Ten of those came during the team’s Super Bowl LVI-winning season. The veteran played only 192 defensive snaps last season. Both Neal and Speights were part of the team’s UDFA contingent this year.

The Rams’ other major piece of injury news emerged earlier today; Tyler Higbee will make the expected trip to the reserve/PUP list. That will knock out the team’s longtime tight end starter for at least four games. Leveston and Murchison are also sidelined for that span, but the Rams’ IR-return moves will lead to two of their eight injury activations being used before Week 1. The NFL greenlit up to two such moves this year, but the Rams have run out of injury activations in the not-so-distant past, exhausting theirs during an injury-flooded 2022 season.

The nephew of Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson, Tre’Vius played 318 special teams snaps as a rookie last year. This development follows Derion Kendrick‘s July ACL tear. The Rams placed Kendrick on IR weeks ago.

NFL Reserve/Futures Contracts: 1/15/24

With a handful of teams getting eliminated from the playoffs this weekend, those front offices are starting to prepare for the offseason. Here are today’s reserve/futures deals, with the majority coming from recently eliminated squads:

Cleveland Browns

Dallas Cowboys

Los Angeles Rams

Miami Dolphins

Minnesota Vikings

Wednesday NFL Transactions: NFC West

Following the 53-man roster cutdown deadline Tuesday, many teams will make slight tweaks to their rosters. In addition to waiver claims, teams can begin constructing their 16-man practice squads today. These 49ersCardinalsRams and Seahawks moves are noted below.

Arizona Cardinals

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Los Angeles Rams

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

San Francisco 49ers

Placed on IR:

Signed: 

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad:

Seattle Seahawks

Claimed:

Waived:

Signed to practice squad: 

Rams Cut Down To 53 Players

The Rams did a bit of work yesterday in moving towards the 53-man deadline. Here are the additional moves the team made today to get down to the max roster number to start the season:

Waived:

Waived/injured:

Released:

It appears that fourth-round rookie draft pick Stetson Bennett won out in the battle for the backup quarterback job, leading to the expendability of Rypien and Winn. Youth similarly won out at the running back spot as rookie Zach Evans and second year backs Kyren Williams and Ronnie Rivers beat out the veteran backup in Freeman. On defense, Copeland is bit of a surprise after starting nine games last year for the Rams.

The special teams room is quite intriguing for now. The room was looking to hold three rookies before the above waiver of the undrafted Oklahoma State kicker Brown. Seventh-round rookie punter Ethan Evans and undrafted rookie long snapper Alex Ward remain on the roster, but without Brown, the Rams will need to look into adding a new kicker out of the free agent market. Or they may attempt to follow the recent trends and trade for one.

Rams Sign 26-Man UDFA Class

The Rams continue adding to a massive rookie class. After drafting 14 prospects last weekend, Los Angeles has announced the signing of a prodigious 26 undrafted free agents:

With former kicker Matt Gay now residing in Indianapolis, the Rams have resolved to a kicking competition between Brown and Dunn. Brown had a stellar year with the Cowboys converting 22 of 23 field goal attempts and making all 42 of his extra points. Dunn had an even better 2022, rebounding after 5 missed field goals in 2020 and six misses in 2021. He converted 28 of 29 field goal attempts in 2022 and, over five years with the Wolfpack, never missed one of his 200 extra point attempts.

Gay wasn’t the only special teamer Los Angeles lost. After losing Matthew Orzech to the Packers in free agency, the Rams will give Ward a run at the position. After drafting punter Ethan Evans in the seventh round, Los Angeles is set to have a full rookie special teams unit.

Winn joins the quarterback room behind Matthew Stafford, Stetson Bennett, and Brett Rypien. He threw for nearly 3,000 yards as a sixth-year senior for the Skyhawks with 18 touchdowns to 11 interceptions. The Rams also signed Burmeister, a former starting quarterback at Virginia Tech who transferred to the other coast. Based on his listing with the Rams, he’ll be attempting to switch positions in the NFL.

With only eight linebackers under contract in a base 3-4 defense, the Rams supplemented heavily from the rookie class, drafting three and signing five more undrafted. They similarly added some significant depth at defensive back, drafting two and signing eight more undrafted.

The Rams have a substantial 40 rookies occupying roster spots on the current 90-man roster (which only holds 89 players as of right now). This seems to be a bit emblematic of the Rams recent all-in strategy that resulted in a Super Bowl but left them with a top-heavy roster with hefty contracts. Regardless, it presents many young rookies with clear opportunities for roster spots and playing time.