There may not be a team in the NFL with a worse rushing attack than the Rams this season. They have the fewest rushing yards in the league (312) through five games and are averaging just 3.2 yards per carry, which ranks 31st.
Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson Jr. have both been massive disappointments in 2022 after there were high expectations for the tandem entering the year. Akers has just 151 yards on 51 attempts thus far, and Henderson has gained only 138 yards on 34 carries – including zero yards or carries in Week 5.
Sure, some blame deserves to be placed on the offensive line, but that’s not the biggest problem with the Rams’ ground game. The running backs are doing very little to create yards on their own, even when the play is blocked well.
“Yeah, there’s so many different things,” Sean McVay said this week about the running game. “It starts with being able to…everybody do their job and then be able to create a little bit. We got to be able to sometimes get more than what the plays blocked for. Then we can’t have free runners, we can’t have guys into the backfield with penetration
If you need evidence of how the running backs aren’t playing very well, just look at the advanced stats. According to Next Gen Stats, Henderson has yet to face a single loaded box this season. A loaded box is when there are at least eight defenders in the box, a sign of a defense trying to stop the run. Akers has faced a loaded box just 5.88% of the time, fourth-lowest in the NFL.
In other words, defenses aren’t going out of their way to stop the Rams’ ground game. They’re using light boxes and still shutting down Akers and Henderson.
Akers and Henderson both rank near the bottom of the league in rushing yards over expected per attempt. Akers is second-to-last at -0.98 RYOE, while Henderson is seventh-worst (-0.45) in that area. Essentially, they’re not even picking up the expected yards that a play is blocked for, which goes back to what McVay said.
Part of the problem is Akers and Henderson aren’t forcing missed tackles. Akers ranks 36th among all running backs with just seven missed tackles forced, per PFF. There are eight running backs ahead of him who have forced more missed tackles on fewer attempts.
Henderson has only forced two missed tackles on his 78 rush attempts, a terrible rate for a running back. For comparison, Texans rookie Dameon Pierce forced 17 missed tackles in Week 5 alone – eight more than Akers and Henderson combined this year.
In terms of yards after contact per attempt, Akers is 71st in the NFL (2.57) and Henderson is 82nd (2.29). They’re simply not breaking tackles and making plays as runners.
It’s hard to say what will fix this problem, but it’s clearly a concern and the Rams are hurting themselves by running the ball right now.
