2018 Los Angeles Rams inactives analysis

The Los Angeles Rams open the 2019 regular season by traveling to face the Carolina Panthers in Week 1. Before the action starts though, the Rams will have to identify seven members of their 53-man roster to denote as inactive today.

It’s not a simple task.

The coaching staff has to identify applicable offensive and defensive depth, special teams roles, gameplan relevance and fitness all as part of the decision making process. The hope thereafter is that no injuries befall a unit to a degree that a member of the inactives is in street clothes when they might need to be called upon.

Last year, the Rams had just a handful of players they relied upon regularly to staff their inactives with just one inactive all 16 regular season games. Otherwise, it was a weekly shuffling that even included some star Rams:

DT Sebastian Joseph-Day was the only Ram to be listed inactive every week in the regular season last year while DT Tanzel Smart, RB John Kelly and OLB Trevon Young all topped 10 inactive selections.

Meanwhile, regular starters like RB Todd Gurley, ILB Mark Barron, K Greg Zuerlein and WR Cooper Kupp and S Lamarcus Joyner all missed duty with injuries that landed them on the inactives.

It’s a bit tough to chart the course of the inactive list in 2019. We might see familiar faces like SJD, DT Tanzel Smart or TE Johnny Mundt make the list, or we could have newcomers like WR Nsimba Webster, ILB Troy Reeder or LB Natrez Patrick.

Inactives should be out an hour or so prior to kickoff.