It wasn’t supposed to unravel this way for Harrison Mevis. After a magical 2025 campaign where he went perfect in the playoffs to propel the Rams to the NFC Championship, the “Thiccer Kicker” suddenly hit rock bottom. A missed 50-yarder early against Buffalo set a grim tone, but watching his potential game-winner get blocked in overtime was the final straw. A blunt Sean McVay admitted the mistakes “cost us the game” and promptly showed Mevis the door. But with kicking woes mounting, does special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone need to pack his bags too? McVay’s answer was absolute.

“Sean McVay, unprompted, in part of his response to a question about the state of special teams at this point: ‘I have a lot of confidence in (special teams coordinator) Bubba Ventrone. There are no changes that are going to be made there. And we’re going to keep working.'” Rams insider Stu Jackson posted on X.

McVay’s vote of confidence is a shield, but history suggests that shield has an expiration date. It was only last season that special teams blunders cost Chase Blackburn his coordinator job, a move that marked McVay’s very first in-season coaching change in nine years at the helm. That midseason firing sent a loud, rare message: in Los Angeles, special teams disasters won’t be tolerated indefinitely. Yet, here the Rams are again, trapped in an all-too-familiar nightmare.

The breakdown isn’t just about one erratic leg; it’s a systemic collapse across every third-phase unit. Return coverage is leaking oil, kickoff returns are stagnant, and the kicking unit looks downright compromised. Rewind to late 2025: in a Week 10 win over the Saints, Joshua Karty’s missed extra point and 39-yard shank prompted McVay to warn that things “can’t continue like this.” The front office swiftly replaced long-snapper Alex Ward with Jake McQuaide and brought in Mevis. For a moment, the bleeding stopped.

Fast forward to Ventrone’s debut season, and the wound has reopened wider than ever.

While Mevis’s pulled kicks are on the player, the terrifying trend of physical penetration upfront falls squarely on protection schemes. According to ESPN’s Sarah Barshop, Sunday’s game-ending disaster was the Rams’ third blocked field goal since last season. Overall, Ventrone’s unit sits dead last in NFL special teams EPA, having surrendered an eye-watering net deficit of 28 points while repeatedly giving up explosive returns without ever delivering one of their own, highlighted by a soul-crushing 70-yard return allowed on Monday night’s opening kickoff.

McVay may insist Ventrone isn’t the problem, but as the misfires stack up, the ice under his first-year coordinator grows dangerously thin. Blackburn got three years to figure it out. On this trajectory, Ventrone won’t be afforded half that luxury. As a matter of fact, McVay took some blame on him as well.

“I’m sick that we came up short, and I’ll be regretting kicking that and not having a better call to be able to go for it on third down and go to fourth or whatever it was,” McVay said. “And that’s on me.”

Under McVay, they have 81 missed or blocked kicks since 2017, including playoffs, which ranks third most in the league. And as for Mevis, he struggled badly this year. His 55.6 percent success rate on field goals was the worst in the league after five games. He has attempted nine field goals, of which only five were successful. Unfortunately, Year 2 had not been off to a good start for him

“I felt like I hit it good,” Mevis said. “That’s all I can tell you. I mean, I hit it good, gave it a chance. I’ll have to look.”

Just like that, the Rams have made a change at kicker, and head coach Sean McVay confirmed it Tuesday. Los Angeles is waiving Harrison Mevis and signing Blake Grupe (from the New York Jets’ practice roster) in his place.

With a new kicker on the team, McVay is hoping for the change to start at the players’ end, before he is perhaps forced to think about the coaches.