Sean McVay Wants More ‘Urgency’ From Cam Akers
As a Cam Akers fantasy owner, you can imagine I sat on my couch pretty pissed last night. Akers got zero fantasy points on just three total carries in an eventual Rams blowout loss to Buffalo on the opening night of the 2022 NFL Season. Not great timing after I declared Akers would be a top ten scoring back in fantasy right before the game.
It just didn’t make sense. Akers wasn’t on the Rams injury report and should have been healthy after suffering the Achilles injury well over a year ago. Why the three carries? Better yet, how did he get benched for Darrell Henderson? Looks like we have our answer and Sean McVay apparently had a point to prove.
“No matter who you’re talking about, you want to see guys do the little things the right way, compete with and without the ball,” McVay said. “There were some instances where there were some positive things and some things that he can do better, but we want to see just an increased level of urgency and accountability snap in and snap out from him.”
“We’ve all seen how talented and what a special player this guy’s capable of being,” McVay said. “And I want to see him reach his highest potential. And that’s really all there is to it. It’s not about anything other than when he and Darrell [Henderson] are playing at a high level, I feel really good about those two guys at running back for us.
“And the opportunities were minimal. There were some things that within each of those individual plays that I think that we can be better collectively, starting with me, then to the players around him, but also with Cam. And so it’s more of a reflection of the confidence that I know what he can be and I’m confident that he’ll be that guy that we’ve all seen at the right moments as this season continues to progress. And that’s our job to help get it out of him.”
I hope your tactics work McVay. It’s not hard to follow the bread crumbs here. They know how talented Akers is. McVay obviously thinks Akers is being one of those quiet quitters. We can’t have that. We also can’t have him benched for Henderson so figure out what’s going on and fix it. In fairness, Allen Robinson didn’t get the ball either but at least his snap count was high.
It’s a long season. No reason to panic, right? The Bills are probably the best team in football. Make whatever excuse you want. These quotes certainly make it sound like McVay had a point to prove.
The Rams play the down bad Falcons in Week 2. I’m not counting my chickens on Akers getting more touches in that game. Not that this matters but Kyren Williams is now also hurt. At this point, who knows what’s coming next? You’re guess is as good as mine because last night has no real explanation for why Akers didn’t get the ball other than McVay was mad at him. If Williams didn’t get hurt, maybe Akers would have been benched. We will never know.
