The five spot: Why Austin MacGinnis should be the kicker for the Rams
Some news and notes on the Los Angeles Rams as they travel east today in preparation for the team’s Week 11 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football:
1. Kicker roulette continued for the Los Angeles Rams this week, as they announced on Saturday the signing of Matt Gay, their fourth kicker with the organization, after he cleared COVID-19 protocols this week.
The Rams signed Gay off the Indianapolis Colts' practice squad, even though they already have a kicker, Austin MacGinnis, on their practice squad.
You know MacGinnis -- the guy who seemingly won the three-man kicking “competition” during training camp. The Rams anointed rookie Samuel Sloman the “winner”, likely because they picked him in the seventh round out of Miami of Ohio.
I’ll save you the recap of how Sloman performed earlier this season, but it wasn’t pretty, and the Rams had to release him. Rams head coach Sean McVay showed patience in allowing Sloman enough time to try and figure things out.
The Rams brought Southern California native Kai Forbath in to replace the rookie, hoping his experience would settle things down at the position. But the UCLA product lasted only two weeks, suffering an ankle injury and landing on the injured reserve. He also badly missed a 48-yarder and an extra point.
Look, evaluating kickers seems to be one of the hardest things for NFL teams to do. One of the reasons for that is because most teams do not have a kicking coach -- a mystifying fact that we’ll address another day in this column.
McVay, likely seeing a competitive advantage against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football, was predictably elusive when asked which kicker, MacGinnis or Gay, he’ll go with on Monday.
“The good news is that with either one of these players, we feel really good about our situation, very confident,” McVay said. “It’ll be a good thing for us on Monday.”
I’m not sure why McVay should be feeling confident about his team’s overall approach to the kicking position this season when they have a 71.4 field goal percentage, fourth worst in the NFL.
MacGinnis should be the choice. The Kentucky product was in training camp, so players know him, including holder Johnny Hekker and long snapper Jake McQuaide. They’ve all gotten plenty of reps together, so that group should have a good feel for the kicking operation and the tempo of MacGinnis on kicks.
Here’s what former NFL kicker and current kicking coach Nick Novak had to say about MacGinnis back in August: “He’s got a very repeatable swing. He’s got a good demeanor, very focused, professional mindset. I was impressed by how much of a student of the game he was, but more impressive was how that ball kind of sounded coming off his foot, and how high it goes and the rotation. There isn’t a whole lot of play on his ball flight, it’s just a nice, straight ball. It reminds me a lot of Greg Zuerlein’s power and how he contacts the ball. I think he has that similar pop that Greg has.”
Gay made just 77 percent of his kicks during his rookie season at Tampa Bay, but perhaps there’s a possibility that McVay uses Gay for kickoffs and MacGinnis for field goals. Or maybe they believe Gay is the more talented kicker and the guy to bring consistency to the position moving forward.
Whatever the decision, McVay needs to find stability and consistency at the kicker position, particularly if the Rams want to make a deep playoff run. At some point they are going to need to rely on the kicker to come through at the end of the game, and they should start building trust in that person now.
2. Even though he played just 10 snaps last week, I thought defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson provided some juice and energy up front for the Rams in his first game action of the 2020 season. I would expect his snap count to increase as his conditioning improves and he gets more practices with the defense.
“I thought he gave us everything he had,” Rams defensive coordinator Brandon Staley said. “I thought he played well from an assignment standpoint and then his effort and energy was exactly where we expect it to be. It will only grow as he continues to practice more.”
3. How the Rams handle pressure offensively with left tackle Andrew Whitworth out will determine how well quarterback Jared Goff performs over the next handful of weeks.
McVay will get a good indication of that on Monday, facing a Tampa Bay defense directed by defensive coordinator Todd Bowles that blitzes 41.7 percent of the time, tied for second-most in the league per Next Gen Stats.
In last week’s win over the Seahawks, Goff was pressured on 4 of 17 drop backs (23.5%) after Whitworth’s knee injury, according to Next Gen Stats. Goff was pressured on 3 of 23 drop backs (13.0%) with Whitworth on the field last week.
For his career, Goff has a 43.6% completion percentage under pressure -- 9.5% below expectation and last among qualified quarterbacks, per Next Gen Stats. This season, Goff is 25 for 68 (36.8 percent) for 291 passing yards, with a touchdown and three interceptions when pressured. He averages 4.3 yards per attempt (28th in the NFL) when pressured, and 8.5 yards per attempt (fifth in the NFL) when not pressured.
4. They said it: “He’s definitely an irreplaceable guy, being a 14-year, 15-year vet, but I feel the coaching staff and everyone here, they have a good game plan for this game. Watching him for three years, I definitely feel prepared to go in there and do as well as he did.” – Joe Noteboom on replacing Andrew Whitworth.
5. Did you know: On third down, the Rams have totaled a league-high 12 sacks. Aaron Donald (4.0) and Leonard Floyd (4.0) are tied for tops in the NFL, combining for eight sacks on third downs.
