Getty Cam Akers receives the handoff during the January 30, 2022 NFC title game.
The Los Angeles Rams have four running backs available for their upcoming road trip to Tampa Bay. Cam Akers, meanwhile, was scheduled to not practice with the team in their return to Thousand Oaks on Wednesday, November 2.
However, amid the trade talks before the deadline passed on Tuesday, November 1 and through the report from CBS Sports NFL insider Josina Anderson indicating Akers has no intentions to play for the Rams for the rest of the 2022 season, head coach Sean McVay shared a new update on that front.
McVay & Akers Spoke
McVay revealed to the L.A. media Wednesday that he and Akers spoke Wednesday morning…and it was a really good conversation.
Does this point to a possible return after all?
“Yeah there’s a possibility of that,” McVay answered, who adds Akers told him he wants to remain with the team moving forward but both sides are working through some options (h/t Rams team reporter Stu Jackson). “As far as playing on Sunday, I don’t want to put the car before the horse. But we’re working through some different things.”
McVay dove further into that interaction he had with the 2020 second rounder.
“After we had that conversation, we got a couple different things that are some options that we can potentially do moving forward. And we’ll have clarity on that as far as getting him back and working with this group or if that means exploring other avenues,” McVay said. “But I want to be able to explore that first one first, let him kind of be able to digest some of the things that we’ve discussed, work with that with his family and obviously David Mulugeta (his agent) and we’ll see what the next step is.”
‘There’s a Lot of Belief in Akers’
McVay continued to elaborate that his morning conversation with Akers and his agent was a positive one and a step forward.
He also revealed that his conversation with the running back came with clarity and honesty from his personal end.
“The one thing that’s good about some of these discussions that can take place is when you get a chance to reflect on it you can be honest about where you can do differently, talking about myself, some of the expectations and there’s a lot of confidence, there’s a lot of belief in the human being and the player Cam Akers based on the experiences,” McVay said. “You don’t want to jump to conclusions just based on a couple of things that nobody was necessarily at fault but it could’ve been better and I always look at myself first and foremost.”
Akers has been missing from the Rams’ facility since the week leading up to the Carolina Panthers game, which was Week 6 of the 2022 season. Since that time, Darrell Henderson and Ronnie Rivers have exchanged starting running back reps — with the latter needing to step in due to “Hendo” battling an illness during the 31-14 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Communicating with Akers took a new step, but is there a chance Akers puts on the pads again this week?
“We’ll see what tomorrow looks like,” McVay said.