The Rams are back on the kicker carousel after Blake Grupe landed on injured reserve Monday, leaving Los Angeles to sort through another special teams mess.
Grupe’s stay was short. The Rams had just moved on from Harrison Mevis last week and brought in Grupe to handle the job.
He knocked through a 44-yard field goal on Sunday, then got hurt trying to tackle Devin Duvernay on the kickoff that followed. Now the Rams have to start over again.
After Grupe went down, Los Angeles turned to Ethan Evans for extra points. Evans converted his only try in the fourth quarter, briefly putting the Rams in front. But with Grupe now on injured reserve, the team is right back to hunting for a solution.
Here are five names that could be on the table.
Tanner Brown stands out as one of the more intriguing possibilities. The Rams originally signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2023 before cutting him ahead of the regular season.
Since then, he’s put up strong numbers in the UFL, going 25-for-28 last year and 7-for-9 from 50-plus yards. He also drilled field goals from 60 and 63 yards in the playoffs last season.
Bringing in a veteran like Greg Zuerlein McManus would at least give the Rams experience. The Green Bay Packers didn’t bring him back this offseason, even though he went 24-for-30 last season with a long of 56 and hit 32 of 33 extra points. The catch is that all six of his misses came from beyond 40 yards, and he was only 3-for-7 from 40 to 49 yards.
Joshua Karty is another name that would get attention, though not necessarily excitement. He flashed real talent at one point and finished his rookie year on a high note before his issues in 2025.
The Rams also let him go last season before making changes to their field goal operation as a whole. Trusting Bubba Ventrone to unlock that again would be a leap, but he’s still a possible option.
Graham Gano brings the kind of veteran profile teams sometimes lean on when the search gets messy. The 39-year-old kicked for the New York Giants last year and went 9-for-10 on field goals in five games, with a long of 55 yards. He was perfect on extra points, too, going 9-for-9.
Then there’s Ben Sauls, one of the less proven names but still part of the mix. Signed by the Pittsburgh Steelers as an undrafted free agent in 2025, he has since bounced around with the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants. Sauls is a left-footed kicker, and he went 8-for-8 in three games with the Giants last season.
The Rams may be searching through the same pile of options again, but the urgency is obvious: they need a kicker, and they need one fast.
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