Rams rule out Cam Akers for ‘personal reasons’, McVay won’t speak on future

Is Cam Akers going to be a part of the L.A. Rams future? That is the question being asked on Friday after hearing the surprising news that Sean McVay has ruled out Akers for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers for personal reasons. Akers was also held out of practice on Thursday and McVay declined to comment on Akers’ future with the team.

There has been some level of miscommunication between Akers and McVay since at least the start of this season. After barely playing in Week 1, Akers said he did not anticipate not being a part of L.A.’s gameplan against the Buffalo Bills. McVay said that Akers needed to start playing with more urgency.

Akers has seen his snap count go up, but he hasn’t been productive so far this season and that stretches back to his postseason play last season. It was shocking to even see Akers return from a torn Achilles in only six months, but the run game did struggle in all four postseason wins. Including his four most recent games, Akers has had a hard time breaking 3.0 yards per carry. Last week against the Cowboys, Akers had 13 carries for 33 yards.

In the playoffs last year, Akers had 67 carries for 172 yards. Including his five games this year, that means Akers has had 138 carries for 322 yards, an average of 2.3 yards per carry. In that time he has scored once and fumbled three times.

McVay declined to say if Akers had a future with the team.

Whether or not Akers’ current absence is a result of L.A.’s struggles on the ground game is not yet clear. What has been abundantly clear is that there is something amiss between Akers and the Rams and the running game for quite some time now.

Darrell Henderson will now get the start and presumably most of the reps against the Panthers on Sunday. The return of Malcolm Brown should serve as his new complement for the near future.

Akers’ future remains uncertain.