The Little Things That Drive You Crazy. (Kicker)

It is the little things that drive you crazy. Rams need a kicker because they could not afford to keep Matt Gay. They decided to bring in two highly touted non drafted college kickers in Christopher Dunn of NC State the Lou Groza Award Winner & Tanner Brown of Oklahoma State the runner up to the Groza Award.

Dunn is surprisingly cut during OTA's, he didn't even make it to training camp, the reason given is that Brown is just so much better, the Rams felt cutting Dunn thus committing to Brown was the best thing to do. No reason is given for Dunn's abrupt departure, but some of that was his inability to kickoff, however, punter Ethan Evans was handling that duty, so unless they just felt they needed somebody to do that incase of injury, didn't think it was a major factor, but that is one of the reasons given.

Tanner Brown isn't given much of a chance in preseason, however, misses two makeable kicks and the Rams cut Brown and look for a veteran to solidify the special teams.

Enter Brett Maher, who, quite frankly has a big leg, but is one of the most inconsistent kickers to come around and once he misses, that can linger the whole game costing his team accordingly. However, the Rams watched Maher in the workouts & scrimmage with the Denver Broncos and decided he was their guy.

In fairness to Maher, it was nice that he had a huge leg and the Rams asked to kick from well beyond 50 yards, he had a few hiccups, but was doing okay until yesterday and many of us felt this would happen and it did and thus, that is what makes it so frustrating.

Not sure who they will bring in to replace Maher, my guess, if healthy is Zane Gonzalez who kicked for Special Teams Coach Chase Blackburn in Carolina. Gonzalez does not have Maher's range, but has been accurate, however, his issue has been injuries and he was thus injured with the 49ers this season during training camp.

Besides Gonzalez two kickers on practice squads are Lucas Havirsik (Browns) & Cade York (Titans) both have big legs, however, York struggled with consistency although he was a high draft pick & Havirsik has not kicked during the regular season.

The reason I was upset is because I felt the Rams could have easily acquired Dustin Hopkins from the Chargers, which the Browns did for like a 2025 7th round pick. Hopkins was consistent although lacked the ability beyond 50+ yards, but at the time that was not what the Rams were looking for. Hopkins has kicked well for the Browns.