Is It Time for the Rams to Make a Change at Kicker?

Despite the Los Angeles Rams' blowout win against the New Orleans Saints in Week Nine, the Rams are not ready to stay complacent. While there were a lot of things to compliment about the Rams’ performance against, admittedly, worse competition, the Rams’ special team’s unit once again had problems in the kicking department. Joshua Karty missed the extra point try on their second touchdown. He also missed a field goal from 39 yards out. This has become a recurring problem throughout the year, with Karty hitting a mere 66.7% of his field goals, and his three missed extra points tying him for the most missed extra points in the league.

However, these numbers don’t tell the whole story, as four of Karty’s misses were blocked, including two field goals against the Eagles and one extra point in both the 49ers game and the Titans game. These blocks have clearly gotten to Karty’s head, and perhaps some of Karty’s misses can be attributed to his inability to trust the blocking and needing to second-guess the timing. Part of this problem could lie with long snapper Alex Ward, whose timing on snaps has not been quite up to par with his solid play in previous years. Both Ward and Karty are young players who have been more than solid in their short tenures so far in Los Angeles. In his rookie year, Karty was a league-average 85.3% for field goals and was perfect in the playoffs. Theoretically, these are both still good players who are not quite worth giving up on. Still, there is an apparent disconnect between the special teams unit that needs to be addressed if the Rams want to continue being contenders.

In his postgame press conference, Sean McVay asserted that they were making it a priority to figure out the special teams unit. On November 5th, the Rams made a flurry of small roster moves that seem to signal this priority is coming to fruition. The Rams added Ronnie Rivers to the active roster, a running back who has frequently contributed to special teams in Los Angeles. They also added kicker Harrison Mevis and long snapper Jake McQuaide to the practice squads. This does not mean that the Rams are moving on from Karty and Ward, but it does mean they are bringing in competition to see if changing up the formula can get the unit humming together.

Jake McQuaide is a former two-time Pro Bowl long snapper who was part of the Rams squad that reached the Super Bowl in 2018. He is 38 and has been on four teams since leaving Los Angeles in 2020. The Rams hope that McQuaide can be a solid veteran presence in their building. This can either mean they hope McQuaide’s experience can help teach Ward to be more consistent or that they feel he is needed to take over the job. Either way, his presence on the practice squad indicates that the Rams feel a pressing need to address some of the timing issues in their kicking unit.

Harrison Mevis, nicknamed the “Thiccer Kicker”, came out of Missouri in 2024, the same draft class as Karty. Mevis went undrafted and signed with the Panthers’ practice squad, but didn’t make the team. He kicked for the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions in 2025 and was 21 out of 23 in field goals for 91.3%. He most recently spent time on the New York Jets' offseason team before being cut. In Los Angeles, he provides another young kicker who can compete with Karty, even if he doesn’t end up taking the job away from him. The Rams could have gone with a veteran similar to McQuaide, perhaps someone the team is familiar with, in Greg Zuerlein, who was also on the Rams’ 2018 Super Bowl team. Los Angeles also could’ve signed Dustin Hopkins, who had a career 85.8% field goal percentage before an abysmal 2024 campaign that left him out of the league. Both kickers represent more legitimate answers for inserting a kicker immediately if the coaching staff and front office felt that was necessary. Instead, they’ve gone with Mevis, which could signal that they aren’t quite ready to give up on Karty and Mevis is just there to provide some competition, but not ultimately take his job. Mevis also represents a potential long-term solution if Karty truly declines, as his youth means the Rams have a chance to develop a long-term kicker who they hope can become like Karty.

It remains unclear what the next direction is for Los Angeles in their kicking unit. The Rams are attempting to make moves to address the issue. Adding Mevis and McQuaide will not be a magic fix to the problem. On the Sean McVay Show, McVay commented that he doesn’t want to put all the blame for the kicking trouble on any one player, whether that is Karty, Ward, Ethan Evans, or any of the blocking units. He says this as an all-11 problem and that the coaching staff will work on ways to achieve cohesion within that unit. Perhaps Mevis and McQuaide can aid this process. Still, there will be numerous adjustments that special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn will make to get this unit working at full efficiency, most of which the public will never even be aware of. If this doesn’t work, this could represent the true Achilles heel of one of the league’s best teams this season, and could put a lot of pressure on the legitimacy of Blackburn’s position as the special teams coordinator.