A week ago, Harrison Mevis was working out on his own, kicking and preparing for the day an NFL team came calling.
On Sunday, Mevis will be the Rams’ kicker when they play the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, coach Sean McVay said Friday.
Mevis and long snapper Jake McQuaide were signed to the practice squad this week because of kicking-game issues that led to early-season losses against the Philadelphia Eagles and the 49ers and resurfaced in last Sunday’s victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Mevis and second-year pro Joshua Karty competed during practices on Wednesday and Thursday.
“Ultimately, in its simplest form, who do I think gives us the best chance to have successful outcomes, particularly in that operation with the given factors on Sunday,” McVay said.
Mevis, 23, made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.
Mevis said he had been preparing for a call every week since the New York Jets cut him from their practice squad in September. He said he performed well this week.
“I feel like I put myself out there, I showed what I can do and proved that I can play at this level,” he said after Friday’s practice. “And I’m ready to go.”
Not only for this week.
“The work’s just starting,” he said. “This is not the end goal. I didn’t come here just to be the starter for one week. So I’m just here to help the team win.”
McVay said he still has “a lot of confidence” in Karty, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick in Karty, who has made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts and 23 of 26 extra-point attempts.
“He’s not going anywhere,” McVay said, noting that the situation would be evaluated again after Sunday’s game.
McQuaide, a 15th-year pro who played for the Rams from 2011 to 2020, replaces Alex Ward. He will work with punter/holder Ethan Evans and Mevis in what the Rams hope will be an improved operation.
“It’s definitely been a little chaotic,” Evans said of the changes this week. “But I feel very confident we’ll be able to go out there and execute our jobs.”
The Rams are no longer kicking the can down the road when it comes to their kicking problems.
On Wednesday, the Rams signed kicker Harrison Mevis to the practice squad to compete with second-year pro Joshua Karty. The move came a day after the team signed veteran long-snapper Jake McQuaide to compete with Alex Ward.
“It’s all geared toward trying to be able to just get some solutions and some kick consistency really with our field-goal operation,” coach Sean McVay said Wednesday. “I think it’s important to have good competition at some spots that we feel we can have improved play.”
The Rams are preparing for their game on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
The Rams are 6-2 — and their losses against the defending Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles and the 49ers both resulted from problems in the kicking game that resurfaced without dire consequences in last Sunday’s rout of the New Orleans Saints.
Against the Saints, Karty missed a 39-yard field goal attempt and an extra-point attempt. Karty has made 10 of 15 field-goal attempts and 23 of 26 extra-point attempts.
McVay said after the game that the Rams would evaluate “all parts of where we go with this operation.”
On Tuesday, they turned to McQuaide, 37, who played for the Rams from 2011-2020 and was part of a special teams unit that also included kicker Greg Zuerlein and punter/holder Johnny Hekker.
“If all things go well with Jake, we expect him to be our long-snapper,” McVay said.
On Wednesday, they brought in Mevis, who made 89 of 106 field-goal attempts at Missouri, including one from 61 yards. In the United Football League this past season, he made 20 of 21 field-goal attempts.
So Karty and Mevis will duel during expanded special teams drills this week.
“We’ll implement more than we normally would on a Wednesday and a Thursday and truly be able to kind of use it as a competition,” McVay said.
The Rams blew a 19-point third quarter lead, were set up to possibly win with a last-second field goal and then had that kick blocked and returned for a touchdown in a 33-26 defeat at Lincoln Financial Field.
“We had the game within our control kind of the whole time,” kicker Joshua Karty said, “and we come out of here with a loss, so [it] kind of sucks.”
When it comes to the Eagles, the Rams are accustomed to disappointment.
The Eagles (3-0) beat the Rams last season at SoFi Stadium. They beat them here in the snow in the NFC divisional round. And now they produced an epic comeback to send the Rams back to Los Angeles with another bitter loss.
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Gary Klein breaks down what went wrong for the Rams in their 33-26 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.
It was a stunning defeat for a Rams team that an hour earlier appeared easily on its way to improving to 3-0 for the first time since their championship season.
The Rams had defeated the Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans, but the matchup against the Eagles, quarterback Jalen Hurts and running back Saquon Barkley represented the first real test for a team McVay has described as the deepest in his eight-plus seasons.
The Rams again came close. And again they failed.
“These are the chances to be able to lean in and see what you’re really about,” McVay, who is now 1-6 against the Eagles, said of his team’s way forward.
Unlike last January, the temperature on Sunday was not frigid. It was sunny and warm, much like how the Rams must have felt early in the third quarter after they went ahead 26-7 on Matthew Stafford’s short touchdown pass to running back Kyren Williams.
It was a seemingly comfortable lead, even for a Rams team that had settled for multiple field goals instead of touchdowns because of poor execution inside the 20-yard line.
The Rams even had their nemesis Barkley — he of four long touchdown runs against them last season — under control.
“We were riding high — everything was feeling good,” receiver Davante Adams said, “and then to come out on the wrong side of this, obviously it’s not the way we drew it up.”
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford throws against the Eagles in the second half Sunday.
(Matt Slocum / Associated Press)
No one could have predicted the Rams would have two kicks blocked in the final minutes.
“It’s the NFL,” safety Kam Curl said, “It’s crazy.”
McVay appeared to keep calm, but like Rams fans watching their team barrel toward another loss to the Eagles, he had to be going a little nuts as his offense stalled while Hurts was passing for three touchdowns and running for another.
The Rams built a 19-7 halftime lead on Stafford’s long touchdown pass to Adams and four field goals by Karty.
They seized momentum on the first series of the second half when edge rusher Jared Verse sacked Hurts and forced a fumble that was recovered by linebacker Nate Landman.
The turnover set up Stafford’s scoring pass to Williams.
“Feeling like we had our foot on the gas,” receiver Puka Nacua said.
The Rams were in complete control.
Until they weren’t.
Hurts tossed two touchdown passes that trimmed the Rams’ lead to five points.
The Rams got the ball early in the fourth quarter, and with just less than nine minutes left, Karty came on for a 36-yard field-goal attempt. But Eagles lineman Jalen Carter blocked the kick.
Hurts’ short touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith put the Eagles ahead, 27-26.
And then Stafford, the master of last-minute drives, drove the Rams to the Eagles’ 26.
It was eerily familiar to last January, when Stafford had the Rams driving toward a potential game-winning touchdown.
This time, all they needed was a field goal.
“I was thankful for another opportunity to kind of help my team make things right and come off the field with a victory,” Karty said.
But Jordan Davis leaped high to block the kick, and then scooped the ball and ran to the end zone as delirious Eagles fans roared.
“Had our chances really in all phases probably to win that one and didn’t get it done,” said Stafford, who passed for two touchdowns, with an interception. “It’s frustrating.”
McVay and his players repeatedly cautioned that it was only Week 3.
And they are correct.
Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown catches a pass in front of Rams cornerback Cobie Durant during the second half Sunday.
(Chris Szagola / Associated Press)
No need to panic or overthink the defeat. Not with the surprisingly unbeaten Indianapolis Colts coming to SoFi Stadium next Sunday.
But at some point — likely the NFC playoffs — the Rams must figure out how to beat the Eagles.
“I hate the Eagles,” Williams said, “but they taught us something … or are putting us through something that we needed to get put through.
“I’m glad that it’s happening this early in the season because it’s only going to make us [better] for later.”
But the Rams’ kicker, punter/holder and long-snapper, respectively, have shown signs that they could have the collective staying power of former Rams stalwarts Greg Zuerlein, Johnny Hekker and Jake McQuaide.
From 2012 to 2019, Zuerlein kicked, Hekker punted (and occasionally passed) and McQuaide snapped for the Rams under former special teams coordinator John Fassel.
The current specialists can envision a similarly lengthy future together.
“We all work really well with each other,” said Evans, a third-year pro. “We all know exactly what each other’s do’s and don’ts are, what makes each other better.
“So I feel like we all complement each other really well — and I think we could do that for a long time.”
Karty, a 2024 sixth-round draft pick from Stanford, experienced and learned from the highs and lows after making 29 of 34 field-goal attempts and 32 of 36 extra-point attempts during the regular season.
Karty kicked a winning field goal against the San Francisco 49ers, navigated a stretch of misses and inconsistency and then finished by making 17 consecutive attempts during the last five regular-season games and two playoff games.
It was something of “a roller coaster,” said Karty, who aims to pick up where he left off last season.
Karty impressed coach Sean McVay with his ability to bounce back.
“I’m just super impressed with his mental resolve,” McVay said. “I think there was some instances last year where you could just see he just got better and better as the year progressed.
“He’s got a consistent process that he commits to. I don’t think you can take for granted the rapport between him, Ethan and Alex. That’s a big deal as those guys are continuing to grow together.”
Special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn said Karty has a “comfortability” from experience and working with Ward and Evans.
“The confidence that’s built in the offseason together and training camp together,” Blackburn said. “Going through it and having those, knowing that he has the confidence and the complete trust of all his teammates too.”
Evans, a third-year pro, last season averaged 41.5 net yards per punt. He placed 30 of 55 kicks inside the 20-yard line.
Evans said he has a refined daily routine and is not overthinking.
“I used to think, ‘Oh, my drop had to be perfect. My steps have to be this … I have to put the ball there, there, there.’
“Now, it’s just like, wherever Chase tells me to punt it, just punt it. Don’t think about anything. Just go and do it.”
Receiver Xavier Smith held off a challenge from veteran free agent Britain Covey during training camp to retain his role as a punt returner.
Receiver Jordan Whittington, running back Blake Corum and Smith could once again handle kickoff returns.
Undrafted rookie linebacker Shaun Dolac and veteran linebacker Troy Reeder are among other players expected to make an impact on special teams.
