Harrison Mevis is a good kicker, which is all the Los Angeles Rams were looking for when the team decided to release former sixth round pick Joshua Karty midway through the season. When a team’s kicking situation gets so bad that they feel compelled to fire the kicker in November, the bar isn’t set very high.
Going into 2026 with Mevis as the only kicker on the roster, it’s clear that Sean McVay has clearly not changed his mind to believing that L.A. needs to raise the bar on special teams, potentially
dooming the Rams to more of the same mistakes in the phase of the game that the franchise consistently ignores. Even despite how last season ended in the NFC Championship.
Mevis is not at fault for all, most, or even a significant fraction of L.A.’s problems on special teams last year. Yes, he was one of the few bright spots.
That being said, just because someone isn’t the biggest problem on a football team does not mean that he isn’t representative of the most major issue of all: The Rams could not care less about special teams and going into another season with a kicker who might need to be replaced in six months is repeating the mistakes of every other year under McVay.
Even the aliens are trying to communicate through Mevis that something is amiss:
Harrison Mevis’s 2025 season
He doesn’t have a special leg. Period, end of story.
In 12 games, including playoffs, these were Mevis’s stats:
- 16-of-17 field goals total
- 48-of-48 extra points total
- 2-of-2 on 50+ yard field goals
Great, I’m totally wrong, right? Mevis was amazing because he only missed one kick out of 65 and therefore I’m an idiot, right?
Well, it’s all good that Mevis was accurate last season from 23 to 52 yards. But in 2025, if you’ve made it to the NFL as a kicker, the majority of those players are going to make 90% of those kicks or more.
Mevis was not trusted by McVay to kick at 50+ and he only had two attempts:
- He was good from 50 against the Seahawks in the NFC Championship
- He was good from 52 against the Bucs when L.A. was up 31-7
Mevis was barely asked to do anything besides kick extra points (13 field goal attempts in 9 regular season games, only one of those at 50 yards) and to his credit he made those kicks. By comparison, the Saints added Charlie Smyth and in only six games he went 4-of-6 on 50+ yard attempts and he had 16 total tries.
Doesn’t mean that Smyth is definitely a better kicker than Mevis, but it does strongly imply that he possesses a far more unique and valuable skill (long distance) than the Rams kicker.
McVay actively avoided long distance kicks in favor of going for it on fourth down, and maybe at times that works to L.A.’s benefit, but it’s unlikely to change with Harrison Mevis back in 2026 with no competition. Therefore if Mevis has even one bad game—which is more likely than not—the pressure will mount quickly on McVay to make a change again.
Just as he did in 2020 with Sam Sloman, Kai Forbath, and Matt Gay.
Just as he did in 2023 with Lucas Havrisik and Brett Maher.
Just as he did in 2025 with Karty and Mevis.
It’s one thing to say that we should trust McVay with offense, or coaching hires (as long as it’s not a special teams coordinator), but another thing to say that his track record proves he knows what he’s doing with Mevis.
Clearly, that evidence is not there. The only evidence there is that the Rams could come to regret not having made a bigger move at kicker. I don’t know what that move would have been, but Mevis is leaning closer to being the type of Rams kicker who gets replaced than one who doesn’t.
