Sean McVay saw some good, some bad from having two kickers active vs. Chargers

Published November 1, 2026 08:25 PM The Rams took the unusual step today of having a field goal kicker, a kickoff kicker and a punter all active against the Chargers. Rams coach Sean McVay said after the game that proved to be a mixed bag.Brandon McManus made all four of his kicks, three extra points and a 30-yard field goal. Joshua Karty, who was active just to kick kickoffs, was called for a kickoff short of the landing zone on two of his five kickoffs, which McVay was not happy about, although McVay said that when Karty actually got it into the landing zone, they were good kicks that were hard for the Chargers to return.“The kickoff coverage doing a really nice job,” McVay said. “We can’t have the two penalties that put the ball on the 40-yard line, but I did think Josh hit some of those early ones really well. What led to us having two kickers up was really just that. That was a unit that we’ve felt like we’ve had successful outcomes with Josh kicking some of those squib or those dirty balls. He’ll keep getting better at it. Sometimes your roster might not allow you to be able to do that, but that was the thinking.”McVay said having two kickers active is unusual but valuable if the kickoff kicker can prevent long returns.“The thought process behind it was we had not been having any success covering kicks,” McVay said. “We’ve got to be better in that area, but you did see when we were able to cover it, because he hits a really good ball that’s hard to field. . . . They’re not going to be able to field it clean and we’re getting a start before they’re getting their return set up, that was the thinking behind it. But obviously we did not want to have two plays that put it on the 40, where you’re kicking it short of the landing zone.”Special teams have frequently been a problem for the Rams during McVay’s tenure as head coach, but he’s eager to fix that problem, and that might mean having more players active on game days just to play special teams.