Rams Release Kicker Harrison Mevis and Sign Blake Grupe a Day After the Overtime Loss to Buffalo

LOS ANGELES

One day was all it took. On Monday night at SoFi Stadium, the Los Angeles Rams lost 37-34 in overtime to the Buffalo Bills, and their kicking game was at the center of the defeat. By Tuesday, according to reporting by NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, carried by Reuters and Field Level Media, the Rams had made a change: Harrison Mevis is out, and Blake Grupe is in.

The move, also reported by Fox News, OutKick, theScore and Rams Wire, ends a short and suddenly difficult run for Mevis in Los Angeles — and it tells you exactly how thin the margin for error is for a 2-3 team trying to keep pace in the NFC West.

Start with Monday night, because Monday night is why this happened. Mevis missed a 50-yard field goal attempt in the first quarter, an early three points the Rams would spend the rest of the evening chasing. Then, in overtime, came the kick that will follow him: a would-be game-winning 48-yard attempt that was blocked, with Fox Sports reporting the kick was tipped by Buffalo's Greg Rousseau. Buffalo took the opening the block gave them and finished the game 37-34. In a three-point overtime loss, the arithmetic is brutal and simple. A made kick in the first quarter changes the fourth quarter. A made kick in overtime ends the game.

Head coach Sean McVay did not hide from any of that afterward. As multiple outlets reported from his postgame comments, McVay said the kicking operation was not close to good enough, said it had cost the team the game, and promised the Rams would evaluate everything at the position. Tuesday's roster move is what that evaluation produced — less than 24 hours later. Coaches say they will evaluate everything all the time. They rarely mean it this literally, or this fast.

The harder part of this story is that Mevis was not some camp leg the Rams were hoping to get lucky with. Just last season, he was close to automatic for them: 12 of 13 on field goals and a perfect 39 of 39 on extra points across nine games, followed by a perfect run through three playoff games. That is the kicker the Rams thought they had — a steady, powerful leg who had already delivered for them in January.

This season has been a different story. Through five games, Mevis was 5 of 9 on field goals, even while staying perfect on extra points at 14 of 14. The trend line mattered as much as the totals: he had made just one of his last four attempts over the past two games, according to the reports. Kickers live on confidence — their own, and their coach's. By Monday night, both were visibly gone, and a blocked kick in overtime is the kind of moment that ends tenures even when the block is partly a protection failure. Mevis, 24, arrived in the league with a cult following from his college days at Missouri and a stint with the Birmingham Stallions in the UFL, where his build and his leg strength earned him the nickname "Thicker Kicker." That leg is real, and at 24, this is unlikely to be the end of his NFL story. But it is the end of this chapter, and it closed in about a day.

His replacement is a known quantity in the way the Rams now need most. Blake Grupe, 27, comes to Los Angeles from the New York Jets' practice squad, and he brings a full NFL résumé with him: 86 of 105 on field goals — 81.9 percent — and 96 of 98 on extra points across 50 career games with the New Orleans Saints from 2023 to 2025 and the Indianapolis Colts in 2025, according to the reports. His most recent extended work was quietly excellent: pressed into service by Indianapolis late last season, Grupe went 11 for 11 on field goals. The Jets claimed him off waivers on August 31 and later stashed him on their practice squad, which is how a kicker with 50 games of experience was available in the middle of October.

That availability is the point. The Rams did not sign a prospect. They signed the most proven leg they could get on a Tuesday, because their season does not allow a developmental project at the position. At 2-3, Los Angeles already trails the 5-0 San Francisco 49ers and the 3-2 Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West. Two of their losses are the kind that turn on a single kick. The division race will not wait for a young kicker to find his rhythm, and McVay's comments Monday night made clear the organization had stopped pretending otherwise.

Next up is Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals, which means Grupe's first test comes quickly — likely with a division game, and possibly the division race, riding on the same kind of kick that just cost his predecessor his job. That is the job. It is also why teams keep a list of veteran kickers ready in October: because one bad night at SoFi can turn a specialist position into the whole story of a season.

There was one more piece of fallout from Monday night still hanging over the team Tuesday. As Previously reported in its coverage of the postgame incident, Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson was seen throwing a punch at Bills pass rusher Bradley Chubb after the game, and reporting via The Athletic, noted by NFL Trade Rumors, has the league reviewing the incident. That is a separate matter from the kicking change, and any discipline would be the league's call. But it underlines the mood around this team right now: a winnable game got away in overtime, tempers spilled over, and by Tuesday afternoon the roster had already changed because of it.

For more on where the Rams sit and what comes next, keep up with Previously's sports coverage and the latest from around the league in our news section. The standings say 2-3. The schedule says Arizona is next. And the transaction wire now says the Rams have a new kicker — because on Monday night, the old one ran out of chances in the most public way the position allows.