Duke Shelley is on IR, Quentin Lake will miss Rams-Browns
This week, the Los Angeles Rams placed depth cornerback and special team member Duke Shelley on injured reserve, further depleting an already thin position group going forward. Quentin Lake, who has played a significant defensive role in the nickel, is also anticipated to miss his second straight game.
Sean McVay seemed unconcerned about the injuries because of how well Los Angeles’ reserves performed:
“I would say probably not this week.” McVay remarked, “But once more, we’ll watch to see how he performs. The way that Decobie Durant and Russ Yeast performed in his absence really pleased me. John Johnson is playing a great deal of safety and taking a lot of snaps. He and (Jordan) Fuller, in my opinion, were very good yesterday. We’ll see how things go day by day; I’m not quite ready to rule him out. However, I believe it would be difficult for him to return for this game.”
In his most recent game against the Seattle Seahawks, Lake recorded a season-high eight tackles. This season, he has 33 tackles and three passes defensed. John Johnson played 62 defensive snaps, a season high, in the Eagles’ victory over the Cardinals on Sunday. Tre’Vius Tomlinson played 24, Cobie Durant played 32, and Russ Yeast played 45 snaps. For Tomlinson, it was a career-high amount of snaps.
Although Shelley had only played 76 defensive snaps this season, she had 190 special team snaps, which tied her with Christian Rozeboom for fourth most on the team.
With a potential wild card berth up for grabs, the Rams can now make a matching move on the 53-man roster before facing the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Los Angeles is tied for the same number of losses with the Minnesota Vikings, who are 6-6. Right now, the Vikings are ranked seven seeds. The Rams could move up in the current playoff standings with a victory.