Okay, LA Rams. It's time to put your money where your mouth is. No, I'm not trolling this team. I'm simply hoping beyond hope that the team recognizes where it stands in terms of their Week 7 situation. Win, and the hope of postseason competition continues to remain lit. Lose, and the team is probably wiser to trade veterans whose careers are not likely to continue beyond the next two or three seasons.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73615859/2174307538.0.jpg)
But this team continues to cling to hope. And if the team can replicate their miraculous post-BYE playoff run from 2023, albeit over the last 12 games, all's well that ends well. Be that as it may, the Rams still must start finding victories.
While I have been brutally honest about some of the factors that led to the team struggling at this point in the season, I'm not abandoning ship. Rather, I'm convinced that this team has multiple ways to get the win in Week 7. And as we know from years past, one win can quickly proliferate as the team builds on that success.
Still, let's be clear. The Rams roster is still depleted. The team is missing their starting tight end, at least two starting offensive linemen and a starting wide receiver. While HC Sean McVay has hinted that WR Cooper Kupp could be ready to play this week, I think that is unwise, and will explain myself in this article.
For openers, the Rams have to find ways to stop making fatal mistakes. So far this season, the team has coughed up the football six times in five games. While that is tied for the seventh-best giveaway rate in the NFL, it is not good enough when compared to this team's four takeaways in five games, good enough for the 24th-best takeaway rate in the NFL. That results in the Rams coming in with a net turnover factor of (-2), which brings the team in as the 22nd ranked team in turnovers so far.
So how can this team fix that? Let's dust off the team's two tight-end offense and give it another test run against a physical Las Vegas Raiders team in Week 7. Why two tight ends? I'm so glad you asked:
(4) - Rams WR room is still banged up
Let's start with the most basic of arguments. After all, it's the KISS rule (keep it simple, stupid). The reality of any NFL team offensive strategy is simple, plan your tactics around the strongest personnel packages. The converse of that argument is, plan your tactics to avoid exposing the weakest personnel groups. Right now, the Rams offense is weakest at the wide receiver room.
I'm not suggesting that the team is not capable of moving the football through the air. I'm simply pointing out the obvious. The team should stick to the strongest group of the Rams roster. Right now, the wide receiver group needs time to recover from injuries.
While everyone understands that WR Puka Nacua remains on IR, he is only a small part of the team's challenges at wide receiver. The team intends to suit veteran WR Cooper Kupp soon. And there is still the matter of rookie WR Jordan Whittington being a bit banged up, despite emerging from the team's BYE week.
Sean McVay said WR Cooper Kupp (ankle) will be questionable for Sunday's game vs. Raiders. WR Jordan Whittington (shoulder) is expected to play.
McVay also said the Rams won't activate OL Joe Noteboom (ankle) off Injured Reserve this week.— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) October 18, 2024
Ultimately, coaches decide who plays on game day and to what extent. And that holds true for the Rams as much as any team. But this team seems to ignore injuries when planning their strategy. Right now, the team can field a strong offense that leans heavily into sending two tight ends onto the football field. I am simply hoping that the team does so in Week 7.
(3) - Rams win with two tight ends
The only win this season was thanks to the team finally leaning heavily into their two tight-end offense. So lobbying for the team to revert to a winning strategy is more common sense than superstition. After all, there are multiple reasons to deploy two tight sends. Let's break them down for you:
(3) - Rams can run more effectively with two tight ends. The presence of an extra formidable blocker on the line of scrimmage should not be glossed over. This offense needs to ensure that defenses fear the running attack to properly establish many of the play-action passes. And those play-action passes are the true bread-and-butter options of this offense. When the run is working, everything seems to work for the team.
(2) - WR Tutu Atwell is perfectly suited in 12-personnel. One of the inherent drawbacks to leaning into two tight ends on offense is the fact that many defenses simply counter that by placing 12 defenders into the box. But that sets up speedy wide receiver Tutu Atwell perfectly. Atwell's speed creates nightmarish matchups for defenses, who are forced to use high-low coverage to corral his speed. So either defenses keep two safeties deep, or they risk losing him in coverage to stop the Rams running attack. In either scenario, advantage Rams.
(1) - The defense needs more ball control from the offense. Thinking back to Week 3, the Rams defense stepped up to force a late punt from the San Francisco 49ers, leading to PR Xavier Smith's incredible punt return that set up the offense to move into range for a game-winning field goal. Without that punt, Xavier Smith would not make that punt return. And without two tight ends, the defense is not rested enough to make that stop. Strategy matters. Two tight ends play into the strengths of this team, not against it.
The team opted to carry TEs Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen, and Hunter Long on the 53-man active roster because each veteran offered unique and complimentary skillsets to the offense. Now it's time once more to tap into those talents and showcase why they deserved to be granted a roster slot.
(2) - Rams face a short week
While the Rams are well rested heading into Week 7 to take on the Las Vegas Raiders, let's not be short-sighted about it. The Rams flip from a Sunday afternoon game in Week 7 to open Week 8 just five days later on Thursday Night Football against the Minnesota Vikings, a team that could very easily arrive at SoFi Stadium still undefeated.
Five days is not a lot of time to prepare this young roster for a new opponent.
- Week 5, Oct. 6: Green Bay Packers | 1:25 p.m. | CBS – L (Packers 24 Rams 19)
- Week 6: BYE
- Week 7, Oct. 20: Las Vegas Raiders | 1:05 p.m. | CBS
- Week 8, Oct. 24: Minnesota Vikings | 5:15 p.m. | (Thursday Night Football) - Amazon Prime Video |
Much like NBA teams who must deal with back-to-back games, one option for the Rams is to simply modify the offensive strategy. And with the way the roster is constructed right now, there is plenty of room to do so on the offensive side of the football.
Hear me out:
If the team employs a strategy of getting 50 percent of the offensive snaps with the 12-personnel sub package, commits to targeting Tutu Atwell frequently, and rotates rookie RB Blake Corum in for 40-50 percent of the offensive snaps, and at least one-third of the carries in the game, the team will ensure that:
- WR Cooper Kupp is rested and far more ready to play in Week 8
- Rookie WR Jordan Whittington gets light usage, setting him up for a larger role in Week 8
- Gives the offensive linemen plenty of help out of the BYE
- Sets the offense up to pivot to the default 11-personnel base offense in Week 8
Overall, the Rams should give serious consideration to leaning one way in Week 7, and the other way in Week 8. Right now, I believe that coming out with two tight ends is the right strategy to face the Raiders.
In the NBA, star veterans often sit out one game of back-to-back games due to the risk of injury or reaggravating an injury. But the NFL has yet to adopt a similar rest-the-vet strategy when facing a short week. Perhaps it's time for the LA Rams to change that.
(1) - Rams defense needs help
Let's be honest, this team is not kind to new coordinators. In 2023, the team shed all special team specialists, and invested the bare minimum for ST Coordinator Chase Blackburn. While fans demanded the team fire Blackburn, we did not see that happening. Now, after investing a bit more generously into special teams, Chase Blackburn appears to have turned the corner.
Perhaps it has something to do with how much the team invested into the group after all?
Similarly, the team has not been kind to the new DC Chris Shula. Despite losing All-Pro DL Aaron Donald to retirement, the team traded away top tackler ILB Ernest Jones IV. And as if that was not back enough, the team is spending the least amount of any team on the defensive side of the football. In fact, the team is outspending on offense over defense by a rate of four to one.
Nearly 80 percent of the payroll is on offensive players.
So sure, let's fire DC Chris Shula. That'll fix everything. Or maybe it won't, after all.
Is there a disconnect between LA Rams GM Les Snead and HC Sean McVay? While they appear to be in lockstep throughout personnel decisions, the way this team uses players on game day seems to say the opposite. The team outspent on offense. And yet, the most expensive offense in the NFL is only generating points at the 27-ranked spot of all NFL offenses (adjusted for the defense's pick-six). Conversely, the cheapest defense in the NFL is ranked 29th-overall in terms of points allowed.
The Rams have faced some pretty potent offenses this season. But the defense's best performance this year was holding the San Francisco 49ers offense to just 24 points, three points lower than their 2024 average. And it was in that Week 3 contest that the team used two tight ends. It was the only game so far that the offense relied on its 12-personnel package.
The Rams are energetic enough. But the players struggle with missed tackling, stuffing the run, and overall consistency. The worst-case scenario for the unit is to spend exhaustive amounts of time on the football field in a heartbreaking loss. The best-case scenario is to spend a minimal amount of time on the football field in a convincing win. Two tight ends offers a more likely probability of the second scenario taking place.
