The Rams are re-signing some of their players and allowing others to leave. Chase Blackburn is a happy man the one of the players staying is Ronnie Rivers. The team announced Sunday morning it has agreed to terms with the running back on a one-year contract.
The announcement is interesting because the Rams reportedly chose not to tender the running back as a restricted free agent but still re-signed him. Rivers, who entered the league as a non-drafted free agent in 2022, had three accrued seasons of NFL service – all with the Rams.
Regardless, Rivers coming back is great news for Blackburn, the Los Angeles special teams coordinator. That’s because the running back played 75.7 percent of his snaps last season on special teams, according to Pro Football Focus. A key contributor for Blackburn, Rivers posted four special-teams tackles last year.
His most important special-teams play came early in the season. Midway through the second quarter at heavily favored San Francisco in Week 3, down 14-0 and facing fourth-and-6 from their own 43-yard line, Rivers delivered.
He took a direct snap on a fake punt and ran 7 yards for a first down. Nine plays later, Matthew Stafford hit Kyren Williams for a touchdown and the Rams wound up earning their first win, 27-24, on a last-second field goal.
Rivers, 26, over his three years in Los Angeles also occasionally spelled Williams in the Rams’ offensive backfield. He’s averaged 4.0 yards per rush over his career (249 yards, 63 carries). He also has 85 receiving yards on 15 career receptions.
Despite establishing career bests with 129 rushing yards and 151 scrimmage yards in 2023, he played just nine games and finished the season on injured reserve with a sprained PCL in his knee.
As a 2022 rookie, Rivers was waived by the Seahawks at the end of training camp but he found a home with the Rams, who signed him to their practice squad. He made his NFL debut with the Rams a month later and wound up playing in eight games that season.
A 5-9, 192-pound sparkplug out of Fresno State, Rivers originally signed as a college free agent with the Cardinals in 2022 before joining the Seahawks midway through his first preseason.
His father, Ron, was a 5-foot-8 Lions running back who played with another 5-foot-8 back, Hall of Famer Barry Sanders.