The Los Angeles Rams made the fascinating decision to have two kickers on the 48-man game-day roster Sunday, using Brandon McManus and Joshua Karty against the Chargers. McManus handled field goals and extra points, while Karty was used exclusively on kickoffs.
It's an unconventional approach, but with the practice squad elevation rules
, the Rams made it work by promoting Karty to the game-day roster.After the 24-9 win, McVay explained the thinking behind that strategy, saying the Rams believed Karty could help solve some of their issues on kickoff coverage by utilizing his dirty kicks where the ball bounces awkwardly in front of the returner and delays the return slightly.
Overall, he was pleased with some of Karty's kicks, but he also made
it clear that the Rams can't afford to have two kickoffs land short of the landing zone and give the opponent the ball at the 40 the way they did Sunday.
“Started off the kickoff coverage doing a really nice job," he said. "Can’t have the two penalties that puts the ball on the 40-yard line, but I did think Josh hit some of those early ones really well. What led to us having two kickers up was really just that. That was a unit that we felt like we’d had successful outcomes with Josh kicking some of those squib or those dirty balls, however you want to look at it, and he’ll keep getting better at it. Sometimes your roster might not allow you to be able to do that, but that was the thinking, if you guys were wondering.”
McVay was asked again about the strategy and the calculations that go into a strategy like this of kicking the low squibbers instead of blasting it into the end zone for a touchback. He pointed to the fact that the Chargers started two drives at their own 23 and 28 when Karty did execute those kicks properly, which is a win for the special teams.
But again, he doesn't want to have scenarios where the ball lands short of the 20 and sets up the opponent at the 40.
"The thought process was we were not having really any success covering kicks," he said. "Didn't want to take the approach that we did after two kicks last week in Vegas where you're putting the ball on the 35-yard line. You go back and forth because if you're going to kick touchbacks, that ends up being a 5-yard penalty if you put it on the 40 when we ended up landing it short of the landing zone twice. We've got to be better in that area, but you did see when we were able to cover it, because he hits a really good ball that's hard to field, just based on the semantics of how the play is officiated. Hey, if you're telling me they're not going to be able to field it cleanly and we're getting a start before they're getting their return set up and the momentum to be able to field it, that was the thinking behind it. But obviously, we did not want to have two plans that put on the 40 where you're kicking it short of the landing zone."
The Rams may not have the roster flexibility to keep doing this, especially considering Karty can only be elevated two more times this season, but for now, it's a way to at least fix some of the problems the Rams have had on kickoff coverage.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Sean McVay explains Rams' 2-kicker strategy, evaluates Joshua Karty's debut
