The Los Angeles Rams added a familiar name to the bottom of the roster on Tuesday, announcing they have signed former All-Pro linebacker Eric Kendricks to the practice squad.
The move gives the club a veteran option at the second level without immediately committing a 53-man spot, and it returns a California native to the state where he played college football.
Kendricks, 34, entered the league as a second-round pick of the Minnesota Vikings in 2015 out of UCLA. He spent the first eight seasons of his career in Minnesota, developing into a reliable every-down linebacker.
The peak came in 2019, when he earned All-Pro recognition and a Pro Bowl berth, the clearest marker of a career that has otherwise been defined by volume and availability.
Across more than a decade, he has piled up roughly 1,180 tackles, 11 interceptions and eight forced fumbles in about 150 games, most of them starts.
Minnesota released him after the 2022 season. He then took a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers, was moved on after one year, and spent 2024 with the Dallas Cowboys, where he started 15 games, finished with 138 tackles, two interceptions and three forced fumbles.
That production did not translate into a stable market. He went unsigned into the heart of the 2025 season, caught on with the San Francisco 49ers’ practice squad in November, and was elevated three times.
He appeared in three regular-season games, recorded six tackles, and started both of San Francisco’s playoff games.
He opened 2026 without a team again. The Rams’ practice-squad signing is the second consecutive midseason landing for him, and it keeps him in the NFC West. Los Angeles already has Omar Speights and Nate Landman ahead of him on the depth chart, so the immediate role is depth and insurance rather than a starting job.
Practice-squad rules still allow the team to elevate him for game day or promote him if an injury opens a spot.
The Rams have leaned on veteran additions elsewhere on defense this year, and a linebacker room that has been ordinary rather than dominant is a logical place for a low-cost look.
For Kendricks, the assignment is straightforward. He has to show he can still diagnose, tackle in space and contribute on special teams well enough to justify a call-up.
At 34, with a résumé that includes an All-Pro season and more than a thousand career tackles, he is no longer being signed for upside.
He is being signed because he has done the job before, and the Rams are willing to keep him close in case they need that experience before the season is over.
