Eric Kendricks was back on a roster Tuesday, and the Rams did not hide the point of the move. They signed the veteran linebacker to the practice squad on Oct. 6, his first stint with any team this season, in a season where the linebacker room has already been thinned by injuries and the defense has drawn its share of scrutiny.
That makes the signing easy to read as a simple depth add. It also makes it harder to ignore what kind of depth the Rams are getting.
Kendricks was a full-time starter as recently as 2024 in Dallas, and he started 15 games for the Cowboys that season. He was not sitting out a year waiting for a comeback. He was on the field, producing, and doing it in a role that still asked him to carry a defense.
The numbers from that season are the first clue that he is more than a warm body for the practice squad. In 2024, Kendricks recorded 138 tackles, three sacks, four tackles for loss, two interceptions and three passes broken up. He also forced three fumbles. For a linebacker who is now 34, that is a recent enough sample to matter.
It is also not a one-year spike. From 2016 through 2024, Kendricks posted more than 100 tackles every season. That kind of run does not happen by accident, and it helps explain why the Rams would look at him as more than a temporary patch.
The Rams need the help now because the linebacker group has been hit. Nate Landman injured his shoulder in Week 1, and Omar Speights suffered a hip injury in the same game. Kendricks joins Elias Neal and Jamie Sheriff on the practice squad, which gives the Rams more bodies at a position that has already been tested by attrition.
Landman, in particular, has become part of the conversation around the defense. He signed a three-year, $22 million contract, has 29 tackles and is the team’s runner-up in that category, but he also carries a Pro Football Focus grade of 58.1, which places him among the Rams’ bottom five defenders. He has also taken criticism for his play as a starting linebacker.
That combination is what makes Kendricks interesting beyond the transaction itself. The Rams are not just adding a veteran. They are adding a player with a long track record while one of their current starters is being judged against a contract that suggests a bigger role and a higher standard.
Kendricks’ career résumé still carries weight, too. He has 21.5 career sacks and 11 interceptions, production that reflects the kind of playmaking the Rams have lacked at times when the defense has looked uneven. In 2024 alone, he showed he can still affect the game in multiple ways, not just by cleaning up tackles.
There is also the matter of how recently he was still in the middle of things. Kendricks played one season for three different teams from 2023 to 2025 before landing with the Rams, and he was barely used last season until injuries forced him into the starting lineup. That is not the profile of a player who has been out of football for long, but it does explain why the Rams are getting him on practice-squad terms rather than as an immediate headline starter.
So the signing sits in two places at once. On one hand, it bolsters the depth chart, which is exactly what a team dealing with linebacker injuries needs. On the other, it puts a spotlight on the Rams’ broader defensive picture, where one veteran addition can look like a targeted fix or a sign that the problems run deeper than one position.
That is the real question now: whether Kendricks becomes a useful answer for a specific linebacker need, or whether his arrival is simply the latest attempt to steady a defense that has already forced the Rams to keep adjusting.