The Los Angeles Rams waived wide receiver and return specialist Xavier Smith on Friday, ending a tenure that began as an undrafted free-agent signing out of Florida A&M in 2023 and grew into a regular place on special teams.
The team announced the transaction as a waiver with no recall designation, which means Smith cannot be brought straight back to the active roster if he clears the wire.
He is expected to be available for the practice squad if no other club claims him.
Smith, 29, never followed a conventional path into the league. After high school he stepped away from football, worked at Amazon in 2016, and later walked on at Florida A&M in 2017.
The Rams signed him after the 2023 draft. He spent that entire rookie year on the practice squad, signed a futures deal the following January, and has moved between the active roster and the practice squad ever since.
Last season, he carved out a larger offensive role, catching 18 passes for 303 yards, but that production did not carry into 2026. Through three games he has not recorded a catch and has drawn only one target.
His value in Los Angeles has always rested more on returns than on the passing game. He has been the club’s primary punt returner across recent seasons and entered this year in the same role.
In the first three weeks, he handled seven punts for 69 yards, an average of 9.9 yards per return with a long of 19, and seven kickoffs for 144 yards, an average of 20.6.
Over a longer stretch, he has averaged about 9.4 yards on 50 punt returns in 34 games, with season longs of 38 in 2024, 31 in 2025, and 19 this year.
Those numbers have not been enough to quiet concern about ball security and field position. Smith muffed two punts in last season’s NFC Championship Game, one of which Seattle recovered.
More recently, in Sunday night’s loss to Denver, he fielded a punt at his own goal line and brought it out 10 yards, leaving the offense pinned deep and setting up a quick three-and-out.
Special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone had described him as inconsistent earlier in the week while still saying the staff had considerable trust in him and was not planning a change. That stance did not hold.
Coach Sean McVay indicated that practice-squad receiver Alex Bachman is expected to take over punt returns, at least for now, and said he wants to see how Bachman handles the job.
McVay also acknowledged that moving on from Smith was not an easy call, given the relationship built since Smith arrived in 2023.
The timing is awkward. The waiver comes one day after the public vote of confidence and only days before Los Angeles hosts Philadelphia.
Whether Bachman, or another option such as Konata Mumpfield, can stabilize the return game will be one of the quieter roster questions heading into Sunday. Smith, meanwhile, waits on the waiver wire, a familiar place for a player who has spent much of his professional career one transaction away from the active roster.
