THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Rams head coach Sean McVay on Friday said he has "a sense" of what the running back rotation will look like on Sunday against the Steelers, but declined to share publicly for understandable competitive reasons.
McVay on Wednesday said "all four of those guys are possibilities" – alluding to Zach Evans, Royce Freeman and Myles Gaskin on the active roster, plus Darrell Henderson Jr. on the practice squad – and reiterated it again Friday.
That was also reinforced further Friday when McVay said Henderson would be elevated and active this week and that they were still working through what the rotation might look like.
"I liked what I saw from all four of those guys this week," McVay said. "Darrell came back in, he's a guy that's going to be up and active this week. He's done a great job of being able to quickly re-acclimate himself back to a lot of the things that we've done, he's taken good care of himself in the meantime. And I have been pleased with Royce. He's smart, conscientious, he's been ready for this opportunity. Zach's a guy that's continuing to learn and then Myles Gaskin, being in Minnesota, being in Miami, there is some familiarity and he's got a skill set that's intriguing. I liked what I've seen from him. So there's a possibility we'd have all four guys up. And then if not, then we'll go with three. And we're really still working through, truthfully, who those three would be between those four guys, and we might have all four of them up."
Kendrick to practice Friday, could play vs. Steelers
McVay also said Friday that DB Derion Kendrick (personal) will practice on Friday and have the chance to play Sunday against the Steelers.
"Got a chance to be able to sit down and speak with him yesterday. I think based on the information that I got, the conversation that we were able to have, use it as a learning opportunity," McVay said. "I think there's certain circumstances and situations that arise that you always use your values and principles to be able to make decisions, I trust this kid's heart, I believe in him, I also believe in forgiveness and understanding, and there's certain things that we can use to be able to learn from, and then there's certain mistakes that people make that maybe it's a little bit different conversation.
"But based on my understanding of what occurred, I feel like this is something that we can move forward with. I really do believe in the human being, I believe in the person. We'll see how he handles today. I want to be smart with him just because he was away for a couple days. But if he feels good, then he will have an opportunity to play for us this weekend. But we're going to take it a day at a time."
