The retirement of Rob Havenstein had some saying that all the St. Louis Rams were gone now, but one player almost qualifies: Longsnapper Jake McQuaide.
Although McQuaide already left the Rams once for four years between 2021-2024, he did return to the team in 2025 and play in 12 games for the team, including playoffs. Prior to leaving, McQuaide spent 10 seasons on the Rams from 2011-2020 and was with the team as they moved from St. Louis to L.A. in 2016.
So McQuaide has spent a collective 11 seasons with the Rams and played for both St. Louis and L.A..
Will McQuaide be back in 2026?
After cutting Alex Ward in November to make room for McQuaide, he stuck with the team as Sean McVay looked for special teams answers, sometimes too little, too late.
That included a new special teams coordinator but that coach has also now been replaced, this time by Bubba Ventrone.
Maybe Ventrone has someone in mind that he’d like to recommend for longsnapper, maybe the Rams just want a completely fresh start, or maybe McQuaide would like to retire. It’s difficult to tell what could happen at the position that fans think about the least.
McQuaide hasn’t played in more than 9 regular season games since 2021, so the 38-year-old may not be L.A.‘s first choice, and that’s assuming he doesn’t retire.
It seems like 2026 is the right offseason to go searching for a new longsnapper. But it’s not a long stretch to think that McQuaide could try to play a 16th season.