Will Zach Evans Compete With Cam Akers For Rams RB Touches?

The Los Angeles Rams looked like a shell of their Super Bowl selves last season with the team as a whole regressing, that included running back Cam Akers, so could he lose his job to a rookie in 2023?

Through the first 12 weeks of the season, the 2020 second-round pick looked like his career was coming to an underwhelming conclusion, averaging roughly 10 touches per game for a mere 32 yards.

However, from Week 13 on, he was dominant. He averaged a touchdown per game, 4.9 yards per carry, with 50 percent of his rushing yards coming after contact, and ranking eighth in evaded tackles per attempt with 18.5 touches per game.

While part of his career resurgence can be attributed to the release of Darrell Henderson in Week 12, but he wasn’t the only reason Akers was an afterthought for most of last season.

In 2021, Akers was sidelined for nearly the entire Super Bowl season due to a torn Achilles, an injury that, unlike ACL tears, historically ends running backs’ careers. He showed flashes of his abilities in the aftermath of the tear but lacked consistency.

Then in 2022, he looked to be on his way out of L.A. when he was absent for two weeks in October, and the team was reportedly shopping him around, but he remained on the roster due to a lack of suitors.

In the aftermath of the season, McVay told reporters that “it’d be silly based on what a great job he’s done to think of it anything differently than him being a big part of what you want to be able to do moving forward. But you just take it a day at a time.”

Flash forward to the draft, and the Rams traded up in the sixth round to select Zach Evans out of Ole Miss, a running back with a similar pedigree to Akers outside of the draft capital invested.