There is one Los Angeles Rams preseason game to go before their Week 1 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks to open the 2023 NFL season arrives. In that time, the team will have to cut down the current squad to make the 53-man roster for the upcoming season. There are several competitive position groups on the Rams roster, which means that there will be some surprising names, including running back Royce Freeman, who won’t make the team.

QB Brett Rypien

The quarterback battle on the Rams roster is intriguing. Matthew Stafford is obviously the starter, but at 35, after missing eight games last season with a scary neck injury, it’s not a given that he will play all 17 games for the team this season.

That makes the backup QB spot all the more important for Sean McVay and the Rams.

Los Angeles drafted two-time national championship-winning Stetson Bennett out of Georgia in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Making a pick that high implies that the organization hopes he will be the backup and maybe even the quarterback of the future.

The Rams also added Brett Rypien to the roster in the offseason after the young signal-caller had a decent three-year run with the Denver Broncos as a developmental backup.

Bennett has got almost all the work during the Rams preseason, throwing 53 passes to Rypien’s 10. However, Rypien has looked sharp in his small sample size.

There is a new emergency quarterback rule in the NFL that says a team can now dress three QBs on game day as long as they are all on the 53-man roster. Speculation around Rams camp ahead of Week 1 is that McVay will only keep two on the squad.

If that is the case, the Rams could cut Rypien and try to get him back on the practice squad. That seems risky, though, with a 35-year-old QB in one spot and a 25-year-old, 5-foot-11 rookie in the other.

RB Royce Freeman

The running back spots on the Rams roster are relatively settled at the top, with Cam Akers as the starter and Kyren Williams as the primary backup. Zach Evans, a sixth-round rookie out of Ole Miss, should make the team as well.

That leaves Ronnie Rivers and Royce Freeman competing for the last spot after Sony Michel surprisingly retired in the midst of the Rams’ preseason.

Freeman is a known commodity to NFL fans. The five-year vet had 262 carries for 1,017 yards and eight touchdowns in his first two seasons with the Denver Broncos. However, he only has 132 carries for 456 yards and zero TDs since.

Rivers, a 2022 undrafted free agent out of Fresno State, has impressed in the Rams’ preseason. He has 15 carries for 73 yards so far to Freeman’s nine carries for 32 yards and a touchdown. Rivers has also flashed potential in Rams’ practices.

Ultimately, McVay should go for the upside play with this spot, meaning Royce Freeman is likely moving on.

OLB Daniel Hardy

The Rams Week 1 roster will likely include five outside linebacker pass-rushers. Michael Hoecht is the best player at the position the team has right now, and LA rookies Byron Young (third-round, Tennessee) and Nick Hampton (fifth-round, Appalachian State) will make the team, too.

That leaves 2022 seventh-round pick Daniel Hardy, 2023 sixth-round pick Ochaun Mathis, and 2022 undrafted free agent Keir Thomas competing for the final two spots.

Hardy played in four games last season, making just four tackles, and hasn’t looked all that great during the Rams’ preseason games. Thomas has looked dynamic in the team’s pair of 34-17 losses, racking up four tackles and 2.5 sacks to Hardy’s one and 0.5.

What may save Hardy is that Mathis, who has great size and good potential coming out of Nebraska, is dealing with a knee injury. The Rams can put him on IR for the first six games and keep Hardy unless they think the rookie will be back sooner than that.