Travin Howard one of the most interesting players to watch as final cuts loom
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theramswire.usatoday.com]
Cameron DaSilva
After the Los Angeles Rams’ win over the Denver Broncos in the third week of the preseason, Sean McVay acknowledged how many difficult decisions he and the front office will have to make less than a week from now. Teams have to trim their rosters down to just 53 players by Saturday afternoon, which will be no easy task for the Rams.
“It’s going to be a lot of tough decisions, but that’s a good thing,” McVay said. “I think that’s a credit to really Les (Snead), his group and our coaching staff to be able to on-board and create some competitive scenarios and situations. You want it to be that way.”
Last week, he called these decisions “champagne problems,” indicating that they’re good problems to have. One player who will be worth watching this week in the preseason finale is Travin Howard.
He had a terrific performance against the Broncos and is making a strong push for a spot on the regular-season roster. He made a team-high eight tackles in only 25 snaps, consistently finding the ball and making plays.
Micah Kiser’s injury could open the door for Howard to carve out a role on defense, even though Bryce Hager has essentially been handed the starting linebacker job. Howard has been impressive all preseason, showing the athleticism that helped get him drafted by the Rams in 2018.
“He’s done a nice job and I think you see the athleticism, you just felt the suddenness and the explosiveness where he arrived and he arrived violently tonight,” McVay said of Howard. “I thought Dakota Allen showed up a couple times as well. Those guys have done a nice job under Coach (Joe) Barry’s leadership. We, obviously, lost a really good player in Micah who’s going to be out for a while and we’re going to need those guys to step up and we’ll see exactly how it shapes itself out.”
The Rams held Hager out against the Broncos “because he is basically our Mike linebacker,” McVay said, so there’s really no chance for Howard to be a Week 1 starter. Allen has impressed equally as much, which might hurt Howard’s chances of making the team.
He could be a backup to Cory Littleton, though, playing more in coverage than on that strong side against tight ends and right tackles.
“Then really we’re seeing around Cory and those other guys, who’s going to make a name for themselves and make it hard for us to cut it down to 53,” McVay added.
Howard has some work to do before final cuts are made, but he’ll have a chance to impress once again on Thursday night in Houston.
