No team in the NFL went into the 2023 draft with fewer players on their roster than the Los Angeles Rams. They had just 44 players under contract, less than half of the 90-man limit.
They began to creep closer to 90 players by adding 14 rookies in the draft and a bunch more afterwards in undrafted free agency, but they’re not operating with the goal of having 90 guys signed.
Sean McVay said on Saturday that they’re perfectly fine with not having the maximum possible, and he has a good reason. McVay wants to ensure that all the players on the roster get enough reps in practice so that they can be properly evaluated. The more players there are, naturally, the fewer opportunities they get.
“We’re a much more competitive football team by the nature of these 14 players,” McVay said. “Our guys are doing a great job in the process of adding CFAs and for the 44 guys that we’ve had in-house right now, we’ll add to that and we’ll see if we’re close. I don’t think we’ll be anywhere close to 90, but you don’t have to be. The way that you’re looking at it, we want to be able to get these guys reps where you can evaluate them and make sure that everybody that we’re onboarding, we feel like has a legitimate chance to make our football team more competitive and a real chance to make the roster.”
"We're a much more competitive football team by the nature of these 14 players."
HC Sean McVay puts a cap on the 2023 #NFLDraft. pic.twitter.com/JNs50zl1qg
— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) April 30, 2023
In addition to the 14 draftees, the Rams also (unofficially) added another 21 undrafted free agents. That gives them 35 new players, nearly doubling their roster size in a span of three days.
So while McVay said he didn’t believe they would get close to the 90-man limit, they’re already at 79. It remains to be seen if they’ll fill the final 11 spots anytime soon, but as McVay said, they don’t have to do so.
Soon enough, we’ll see all 79 players on the field together when the Rams hold their mandatory minicamp in June, which will begin to give coaches an idea of which players could rise and make the final 53-man roster come September.
