Eleven Games Left, and the Rams Are Running Out of Roster

At 2-4 with a two-game losing streak, the Rams are 1.5 games out of the last wild-card spot — close enough to stay alive, thin enough that another bad week changes the math fast. The injury list has stopped being a list and started being a condition. Davante Adams is out six to ten weeks with a ruptured hamstring. Myles Garrett is on IR. Kobie Turner and Terrance Ferguson are on IR. Poona Ford is done for the year. Nate Landman is now questionable for Week 7. Trent McDuffie remains questionable. That's the pass rush, a chunk of the defensive line, a linebacker, and the secondary depth, all compromised at the same time.

The passing game is the most immediate concern. Puka Nacua is active and has been the steadiest receiver on the roster through four games. Kyren Williams has been the team's most reliable offensive weapon overall — the piece published yesterday made that case, and the numbers back it up. But Stafford is working with a noticeably shorter menu now, and McVay told reporters this week the team isn't rushing to find an external replacement for Adams. My read: that's either confidence in what they have or a cap situation that limits the options. Probably some of both.

The kicker carousel is its own separate headache — Brandon McManus is the third man in three weeks, and I've written about that twice already, so I'll leave it there. The point is that the problems are not connected to each other, which makes them harder to solve. A team can scheme around one missing piece. Scheming around six or seven requires a different kind of depth than this roster currently has.