The preseason is over. The Los Angeles Rams just finalized their initial 53-man roster. The regular season is right around the corner.
But before we turn our attention to Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia, let’s first take a deep dive into the newly minted roster and see what we can glean.
These are six things the Rams and the NFL just told us:
1 – Aaron Donald is BACK
It’s officially official. One of the greatest defenders in the history of professional football is giving it one more run in hopes
of adding another ring to his collection. Donald will join Myles Garrett on the defensive line.
Whether Donald can return to form is an open question. There is plenty of time to assess his capabilities as the season goes on. It’s at least nice to have closure and know that the Rams are taking advantage of every opportunity to bring another championship to Los Angeles.
2 – Rams won their recent trade with Dolphins?
LA recently traded 2025 fourth-round running back Jarquez Hunter to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for receiver Tutu Atwell in a one-to-one player swap. Atwell has made the initial 53-man roster. Hunter was waived by Miami.
Atwell needs to have a bigger impact on the team than he did in 2025 in order to truly call the Rams winners in this exchange. Still, at least he’s still around. Hunter is looking for new work.
3 – Two OL head to injured reserve
Justin Dedich—who sat out the start of camp due to a July hand injury—was placed on injured reserve along with rookie Keagen Trost. This transaction does not rule them out for the entirety of the year. Both players will miss at least four games to start the season and then can be re-activated to join the team.
Replacing Dedich and Trost are Dylan McMahon and Bill Murray. Murray was a preseason standout that made the most of ample playing time to make an impression on the coaching staff.
4 – A mysterious new NFL trend
Much was made of LA’s deliberation between who to keep on the roster at quarterback behind Matthew Stafford. The Rams opted to keep Stetson Bennett, and Ty Simpson was never in danger of being released. Still, there are tradeoffs when it comes to rostering three QBs.
But at least the Rams are in the position where things were so uncertain that they had to keep four signal callers. The Eagles, Falcons, Steelers, and Vikings all fell into this bucket. It’s the latest head scratching trend in terms of roster building. If you need four QB’s, you probably don’t have the right players. It’s a quantity over quality approach.
5 – Rookie report
LA cut rookie seventh-rounder Tim Keenan, who likely was the direct loser of Donald re-joining the team. All other 2026 draft selections made the cut, other than Trost who is on injured reserve. Wesley Bailey also joined the fold as an undrafted free agent. This was foreshadowed by the fact he played on two snaps against the Los Angeles Chargers’ starters in the preseason before getting pulled. Nick Andersen also was pulled early but was excluded from the initial 53. He’s a favorite to return on the practice squad unless he draws attention from other teams.
6 – The biggest surprise
The talk surrounding the Rams all offseason has centered around the idea they are doubling down on heavier personnel sets and therefore needed to roster five tight ends, including second-round rookie Max Klare. The next logical dot to connect is the idea that LA maybe needed less receivers; however, they kept seven at this position. Puka Nacua’s standing with the NFL is still an open matter, and perhaps the team is bracing for a potential suspension. Nacua did not start the year on the commissioner’s exempt list, as others with open matters did around the league.
