Just when the Los Angeles Rams seem to find their workhorse running back, stud rookie Cam Akers goes down with an injury. He suffered a high ankle sprain against the Jets and finished the game, but he’ll be forced to miss at least one week.
Not having Akers, who’s rushed for 306 yards on 65 carries in his last three games, is a big blow to the offense, but the Rams are deep at running back. Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown have all played meaningful snaps this season, and their roles will grow again on Sunday against Seattle.
Sean McVay hasn’t decided on the roles for Henderson and Brown, but he did make it clear that both players will be involved on offense in Akers’ absence, however long that is.
“I mean they’ll both get work,” he told reporters Monday. “As far as the specifics, I’m not really sure. We’re just getting into the initial parts of the game plan. I mean, literally we just got that information about Cam probably a couple hours ago, so it’s all relatively new. We’ll talk to those guys first and we’ll develop a game plan, but I can tell you that both those guys will be heavily involved.”
Henderson has been the more effective and explosive of the two, rushing for 562 yards on only 126 carries. He’s scored six total touchdowns and racked up 721 yards from scrimmage despite only touching the ball 142 times.
Brown has only carried the ball 16 times for 58 yards in his last six games, which doesn’t even match his production from Week 1 alone. But he’s valuable in pass protection, proving to be the Rams’ most reliable back when asked to block for Jared Goff.
Akers was hitting his stride before getting hurt, but let’s not forget that Henderson was Pro Football Focus’ highest-graded running back at one point this season and is averaging a healthy 4.5 yards per carry. Hopefully that lessens the drop-off with Akers out of the lineup.
