Les Snead is making his usual kind of noise again, and for Rams fans, that matters. The general manager has already started working through the roster with a sharp eye on what’s broken, and the first round of moves points straight at special teams.
Not all of these additions are going to flip the season overnight. Some may barely register right now. But the way the Rams handled yesterday’s transactions suggests this may be only the opening move, not the finish.
The biggest headline is simple enough: Harrison Mevis is out, and Blake Grupe is in.
After Mevis missed both field-goal attempts on Monday Night Football, the Rams cut him loose and brought in Grupe from the New York Jets’ practice squad. That part was expected. What comes next may be more revealing, because Mevis was only one piece of a broader problem.
He wasn’t handling punts. He wasn’t handling kickoffs.
He wasn’t helping in coverage, either. And since Los Angeles has had issues in those spots too, it would not be a surprise to see Snead keep digging for answers.
One of those answers could be Garrett Nelson, who joined the practice squad even though he has yet to play an NFL snap. The appeal there is less about instant impact and more about fit: he can work both inside and outside linebacker, and he has the speed, strength, and fearlessness to be molded into a special teams contributor.
That makes Nelson feel less like a depth patch and more like the kind of player Snead may be targeting on purpose.
The same idea seems to apply to Damarion Williams, who arrived as a practice squad exception. Los Angeles could use him as a slot corner, a versatile defensive back, or a special teamer.
In a normal setting, he would look like simple secondary depth. In this particular push to shore up special teams, he looks more like someone who could end up in Bubba Ventrone’s group.
Williams did that for the Baltimore Ravens, who took him in the fourth round of the 2022 draft. But since 2023, he has not managed to stick on an NFL roster.
The Rams also moved on from Jamie Sheriff, ending his time on the practice squad. Los Angeles added the former Seattle Seahawks edge rusher in early September, when he was seen as depth for a pass rush that had lost Myles Garrett to injury. That opportunity never turned into game action, and Sheriff is now back in free agency.
His release also opened the spot that went to Nelson.
So while these moves won’t rewrite the Rams’ outlook by themselves, they do tell a story. Snead is working, the roster is shifting, and the focus looks squarely aimed at fixing special teams one piece at a time.
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