Rams Will Have A New Kicker When They Face Raiders

The Las Vegas Raiders are playing the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, and when this one first popped up on the schedule it looked like a mismatch. The Rams are coming off a Super Bowl season, but there’s been some slippage so far, so this could actually be an opportunity game for the Raiders. 

The Rams’ weakness is with their special teams, which have been a mess for a while now. They’ve become the Achilles heel of wunderkind coach Sean McVay, and the Rams will have a new kicker when they come to Las Vegas, according to a report from Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk and multiple other outlets. 

Brandon McManus is 35 years old, but he’s one of those veteran kickers who constantly gets recycled and repackaged as he moves from one team to another. He had a good season for the Green Bay Packers making 24-of-30 field goals and 32-of-33 extra points in 14 regular season games. 

But McManus stumbled in the playoffs, which is why he’s available. He missed two field goals and an extra point in Green Bay’s playoff loss to the Chicago Bears last season, which is the big reason the Packers moved on from him.

For the Rams he represents a competent option at a time of need. They placed kicker Blake Grupe on injured reserve on Monday after he suffered a torn ACL during Sunday’s game against the Cardinals, per Simmons, and LA released Harrison Mevis last week after a rough start to the season.

McManus does have a track record, though. He has a Super Bowl ring from his stint with the Denver Broncos, as he capped off Denver’s postseason run in 2015 by making all ten of his field goal attempts and all three extra points that year. McManus has played in 186 career regular-season games, and he’s made 82 percent of his field goals and 97.4 percent of his extra points.

For the Raiders, this change represents an interesting chance for an unexpected win. They’ve had two three-point losses in the last three weeks, and coach Klint Kubiak has been emphasizing closing out games in his messaging after Sunday’s loss to the Buffalo Bills. 

The Arizona Cardinals may have put up an unlikely blueprint for beating the Rams. They were able to hang around in the first half and play LA to a 9-9 tie, and they won the game on a last-second field goal, so Kubiak and company will be looking to duplicate that result.