Rams’ decision to prioritize receiver depth in offseason is coming back to haunt them
After a disappointing 2020 season, the Los Angeles Rams needed to look themselves in the mirror and make some changes on their roster. Their offseason would be defined by the decision to move on from Jared Goff. The Rams sent their starting quarterback to Detroit and brought in Matthew Stafford, a move that has worked out quite well for the most part.
The Stafford-Goff swap dominated the headlines for the Rams this offseason. It also helped cover up the fact that the Rams moved on from six additional starters last offseason and only replaced one of them in a meaningful way. Over the last two weeks, that decision has come back to haunt them.
Les Snead and the Rams were strapped for draft capital and cap space after a few years of paying premium prices to retain their core players and acquire stars from other teams, They spent the majority of the salary cap space they had to retain Leonard Floyd, which has worked out and then some. But that left six players to replace with about $5 million dollars and a second-round pick. Those players were John Johnson, Troy Hill, Austin Blythe, Josh Reynolds, Samson Ebukam and Michael Brockers.
The Rams had drafted Josh Reynolds’ replacement in 2020 when they selected Van Jefferson in the second round. He was an obvious player to move on from. But for whatever reason, the Rams decided to spend every bit of the meaningful assets they had left to spend that offseason on building up an already top-heavy receiving room.
They first signed DeSean Jackson, the speedy long-time veteran, for $4.5 million. Jackson was the only free agent the Rams signed in the 2021 offseason. He filled a specific need and the signing made a bit of sense. A few weeks later, they chose to double-down on adding depth to their receiving core when they spent their only second-round pick on Tutu Atwell, an undersized and risky prospect out of Louisville.
So how did the Rams replace the other five departing starters? Some of them had obvious replacements. The Rams couldn’t afford to replace John Johnson and Taylor Rapp was ready to step in. Ebukam was not needed anymore. Sebastian Joseph-Day and A’Shawn Robinson would be just fine replacing Brockers.
Replacing Troy Hill and Austin Blythe was a bit more complicated.
The decision to let Blythe walk for pennies (his 2021 cap hit is less than $1 million) and put their trust in Brian Allen has been discussed at length by Rams fans since the team passed on Creed Humphrey – a center out of Oklahoma who is currently starting over Blythe for the Chiefs – in favor of Atwell at 57. In the Rams’ defense, Allen has been more-or-less solid in replacing Blythe and looks like a completely different player than we saw during his brief stint at center in 2019. But Humphrey has looked like a stud so far and Atwell hasn’t looked like anything and is currently the highest-graded center in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. It was a decision that may haunt the Rams long-term.
In the short term, however, nothing is haunting this team more than the loss of Troy Hill. Hill signed a two-year, $9 million deal with the Cleveland Browns this offseason, the same annual salary the Rams handed to Jackson.
To replace Hill, the Rams put all their faith in David Long Jr., a former third-round pick heading into his third year with the Rams. Long had failed to carve out a role for himself in his first two years with the team. Luckily for him, he didn’t have to carve out a role for himself in year three. The starting job was simply handed to him.
Long has been an absolute disaster so far and quickly lost his starting spot. And given the fact that the Rams spent their entire offseason bringing in gadget receivers, they had no cornerback depth in case Long didn’t work out. The Rams benched Long for rookie Robert Rochell. Rochell has looked exactly how you’d expect a small school fourth-round pick to look: raw. The team has also looked to longtime camp body Donte Deayon, who has been surprisingly decent in the limited amount of time we’ve seen him play.
Hill has said that his decision came down to the Rams and the Browns, so ultimately the Rams may have not been able to keep him either way. Regardless, it doesn’t hide the fact that the Rams offseason following the Stafford trade prioritized all the wrong things. Anyone with even a casual understanding of the Rams’ roster would have known that Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods would dominate the snaps at wide receiver. They also made a luxury draft selection with Jefferson in 2020. While that decision has paid off given Jefferson’s emergence, it also emphasized the complete lack of need to draft another receiver in the second round in 2021.
The most frustrating part of the Rams prioritizing receivers this offseason is how Sean McVay deployed his new weapons in their offense. Jackson averaged 2.1 targets per game in limited playing time before the team mutually parted ways with the veteran receiver halfway through the year. Atwell played 10 offensive snaps before suffering a season-ending injury.
Meanwhile, the Rams’ secondary was just sent to the shadow realm by Deebo Samuel in a blowout Monday night loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The team had plenty of needs in the offseason, but chose to address a position that they didn’t need to address instead. They head into the bye week with plenty of adjustments to make to a defense that’s falling apart.
Troy Hill would have certainly been able to help.
