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Another week, another game.
This Saturday, the Los Angeles Rams will host the Oakland Raiders in the second game of the 2018 preseason. Since there will be a rematch of this game the first week of the regular season, it would stand to reason that neither team will play their starters for an extended period.
That means that we should see many of the same players from last week’s 7-33 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Here are some players on the roster bubble to keep an eye on.
KR/PR JoJo Natson
In his rookie season with the New York Jets, Natson didn’t make much of an impact. Finishing with just two catches for 18 yards, he was primarily a return man used 32 times on both kick and punt returns. Natson impressed on returns against the Ravens, but the Rams have an all-pro in Pharoh Cooper.
Natson would be a surprise to make the roster. He will need to show more in the passing game to have a better chance at sticking on the practice squad.
OT Cornelius Lucas
OT Darrell Williams
Both played terrible on Thursday. It could have been just a bad game for both, but with three drafted rookie offensive linemen pushing behind them, neither one of these two showed enough to comfortably justify making the roster. The team will probably keep one of these two.
Both Austin Blythe (c) and Cornelius Lucas (rt) with the less than ideal pass pro for Mannion.
— SeattleRams (@seattlerams_nfl) August 10, 2018
Four pass attempts at this point. 2 completions, a drop and a sack and zero push in the running game. pic.twitter.com/8PdoliJSRY
As bad as Mannion was last night and as much stick as he's getting, we should probably be talking just as much about Darrell Williams.
— TurfShowTimes (@TurfShowTimes) August 10, 2018
QB Brandon Allen
In his first game as a Ram, Allen was pretty impressive at least compared to backup QB Sean Mannion. Allen completed 10 of 15 passes for 73 yards and a score. While on paper that’s not amazing, during the game it looked as though he had a solid grasp of the offense and commanded the huddle pretty well.
It will be interesting to see if Allen can string together a couple more games and if that would be enough to surpass Mannion on the depth chart. It would be tough to justify keeping three quarterbacks on the roster if he does not perform.
LB Bryce Hager
If it was not evident in his prior three seasons, it became more obvious after the week one preseason game. Hager is not an NFL-caliber backup linebacker. There could be a case made of him having a poor game, however in his career he has not done much. With rookies Tegray Scales and Micah Kiser playing well last week, it would not be a surprise to see both linebackers rise above Hager by the end of the preseason and Hager could be cut.