Rams get down with the ‘thickness’ as midseason overhaul of worst performing unit continues after Sean McVay’s angry rant

The Rams have made several intriguing moves to help overhaul their woeful special teams and field goal units

AJ Schulte — College Football Trending News Writer

Nov 5, 2025 3:30 PM EST

The Los Angeles Rams are in the midst of one of their best seasons in recent memory, sitting at 7-2 with a dominant defense and arguably one of the best offenses Sean McVay has ever built. Quarterback Matthew Stafford is playing at an MVP level (and perhaps as the MVP front runner), the pass rush is downright suffocating, and the Rams pulled off a pretty solid trade last week when they added former Titans’ cornerback Roger McCreary to the team.

However, if there’s one room that has been the Achilles heel of the team so far this season, it’s been their field goal unit. Blocked and/or missed field goals were the reason they lost in both of their losses to the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, and the team can’t go into the playoffs with these issues continuing to pop up.

Sean McVay has repeatedly expressed his frustrations regarding the unit, frequently bringing up their need to address it and solve it. Nothing they did during the bye week evidently did that, and the Rams have now taken steps to perhaps overhaul the entire room this week.

This week alone, the Rams have made two moves to try and address the woes in their field goal unit. They signed longtime former Rams long snapper Jake McQuaide to the practice squad. He spent a decade with the Rams and reached Pro Bowls in 2016 and 2017. He’s been away from the team for four years and spent 2024 with the Vikings and Dolphins.

Today, the Rams made another addition to special teams, as they signed kicker Harrison Mevis to the team’s practice squad. Mevis has only kicked in the NFL during preseason, missing his only kick over 50+, but he spent last year in the UFL. He was 20-21 on field goals last year in the UFL and finished 13-14 over 40+ yards. In college, he set the record for the most field goals of 50+ yards in Mizzou history, including the longest field goal in SEC history at 61 yards. Mevis is also affectionately dubbed the “Thiccer Kicker”

Both of these moves were made in an effort to fix the Rams’ biggest issues this season in the kicking game.

The hope for McQuaide is he helps step in and iron out some of the Rams’ blocking woes. Long snapper Alex Ward has shown some timing inconsistencies and the blocking schemes set up haven’t worked out. He’s not catching or adjusting his approach either. The Rams have had five kicks blocked under Ward, including two field goals that lost them the Eagles’ game and an extra point that played a part in their loss to the 49ers.

Mevis likely won’t be an upgrade over Karty in any meaningful way, but he’s obviously been brought in to turn the heat up on Karty’s seat and try to push him to do better. Karty simply has to play better, and the Rams finally signing a kicker is a signal to him that he might want to get himself into gear or else find himself replaced. Even if the Rams spent a draft pick on him, they are all in on the Super Bowl, and they won’t let him cost them that, even if it means cutting him and taking a loss on his selection.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem here is the special teams coaching itself, led by STC Chase Blackburn. He’s been there for multiple years now and the same issues keep popping up in this unit year over year. I understand that McVay doesn’t want to play musical chairs and search for another special teams coordinator, but something has to change there.

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AJ Schulte