With Tyler Higbee’s emergence in the month of December, Gerald Everett has quickly fallen out of favor with the Rams. He returned from a knee injury last week against the Seahawks and only played four snaps.
In his second game back on Sunday, Everett wasn’t on the field for a single snap in the Rams’ 31-24 win. It wasn’t because the Rams leaned heavily on 11 personnel, either, because Johnny Mundt played 34 snaps.
It’s an interesting development, as it’s unclear if the Rams don’t see Everett as a factor or they simply wanted to avoid further injury in a meaningless game.
We’ll take a look at the complete list of snap counts from Sunday’s game, beginning with the offensive side of the ball.
Offense
Tyler Higbee only came off the field on three plays, once again proving to be one of Jared Goff’s favorite targets. He caught eight passes for 84 yards and a touchdown, continuing his hot streak in the month of December.
Sean McVay wanted to take it easy on Todd Gurley in the season finale, only playing him on 68% of the snaps. Malcolm Brown spelled him on 26 plays, carrying the ball nine times on those snaps.
Robert Woods once again led the way at WR with 78 snaps played, followed by Cooper Kupp (50), Brandin Cooks (49) and Josh Reynolds (38). The Rams wanted to get all four receivers involved, but Reynolds didn’t record a catch and Cooks only had three catches for 40 yards.
Defense
Darious Williams and David Long were the starting outside cornerbacks with Jalen Ramsey and Troy Hill injured. Nickell Robey-Coleman didn’t miss a snap as the slot corner, while Donte Deayon played 18 snaps, himself.
Clay Matthews was out there for 52 plays, but he only finished with a tackle assist. Dante Fowler Jr. made two tackles and had a pass batted down on 59 snaps, while Samson Ebukam played the other 25 snaps at outside linebacker. No other edge rusher got in the game, with Obo Okoronkwo inactive.
Morgan Fox out-snapped Michael Brockers, who left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. He had one tackle, which went for a loss.
Sebastian Joseph-Day and Greg Gaines split time at nose tackle, with the former playing 17 snaps and the latter 14 snaps. The Rams went with a lighter front, for the most part, with the two only playing 31 combined snaps.
Travin Howard and Troy Reeder helped fill in for Cory Littleton, who injured his chest in the third quarter and did not return. They played 34 and 31 snaps, respectively, with Howard having an up-and-down performance in coverage.
