An undrafted free agent who bounced between four teams before joining the Rams last season, Brandon Powell has become indispensable for the defending Super Bowl champions. He runs routes as a wide receiver, takes some carries as a running back and serves as their primary kickoff and punt returner. Of all his many odd jobs, though, by far the oddest came with 13 seconds left in a Week 2 game against Atlanta, when the 27-year-old lined up at punter as Los Angeles clung to a 31–25 lead. “It was stressful,” Powell says.
Stationed along his 14-yard line, Powell shook off his jitters in time to snag the long snap from Matthew Orzech, no easy feat itself. (“I catch punts,” Powell explains. “I don’t sit back and catch punts that way.”) But instead of booting it on this fourth-and-7, or carrying out a fake, he tucked the ball under his right arm, turned tail over his right shoulder and retreated into the Rams’ end zone while a flock of Falcons gave chase. “Executed it perfectly,” says Powell, who eventually tip-toed out of bounds at the rear pylon with six seconds on the clock. “They got two points; we won the game.”
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