If you were to try and rank the wide receiver coaches in the NFL, most would likely just rank the position groups based on how good they are. For the majority of his tenure with the Los Angeles Rams, Eric Yarber has coached one of the better wide receiver units in the NFL.
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When Yarber joined the Rams, it was no easy task and had been one of the more starved units in the league for almost a decade. In the early 2000s, the Rams were spoiled with a Hall of Fame caliber duo in Isaac Bruce in Torry Holt. When Holt left the team following the 2008 season, the franchise struggled to find players to replace him.
They hoped for the continued development of second-round pick Donnie Avery. However, after a promising rookie year. Avery took a step back in 2009 and then missed the entire 2010 season with a knee injury. The Rams front office drafted players like Mardy Gilyard, Austin Pettis, and Greg Salas. In an attempt to rebuild the receiver room, current general manager Les Snead made wide receiver Brian Quick one of his first selections. The following year, Snead traded up to take Tavon Austin in the top-10.
That doesn’t mention signing free agents like Brandon Lloyd or trading for Laurent Robinson.
It was a series of draft busts and disappointments. Following Holt’s 1,189-yard season in 2007, the Rams went nine years without a 1,000-yard wide receiver. Kenny Britt finally broke that streak in 2016, barely eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark at 1,0002 yards.
When McVay took over in 2017, the Rams wide receiver room was bleak. The Rams didn’t have a first-round selection and with that pick the Tennessee Titans took Corey Davis out of Western Michigan. The Rams had to find value in free agents like Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp which is exactly what they did.
Since 2000, Yarber has done nothing but coach wide receivers. He moved from running backs to wide receivers at Oregon State and never looked back. After that, he had several stops that included the San Francisco 49ers, Washington, Arizona State, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who were coached by Raheem Morris, and finally UCLA. As an experienced coach, Yarber joined McVay’s staff.
The turnaround in the wide receiver room was immediate. Drafted in the third round out of Eastern Washington, Cooper Kupp immediately became an impact player. Robert Woods who had never had more than 700 yards in a season with the Buffalo Bills, set career highs in his first season in Los Angeles.
Since then, the success at the position has only continued. There have been the occasional misfires and players not realizing their full potential i.e. Van Jefferson and TuTu Atwell. However, for the most part, the Rams have gotten the most out of players at the wide receiver position. Puka Nacua arguably had the best rookie season for a wide receiver ever and was taken in the fifth-round.
While the Rams offense design does benefit the receivers and help create opportunities and separation, it’s the identity of the position within the offense where Yarber’s impact can be felt. As described by The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue, “Rams receivers are asked to do a lot. Yarber set the standard for their physicality and technique in 2017, and that has carried forward.”
Since Yarber has joined the Rams, players like Woods, Kupp, Nacua, Atwell, and even Demarcus Robinson have been among the top blockers at wide receiver since joining the Rams. Rookie Jordan Whittington has taken on that same personality. Said ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, “He’s a different style of receiver — rugged and big — which is good for McVay’s perimeter blocking.”
Again, however, it’s the development of players under Yarber that really stands out. The players that come to mind are:
- Robert Woods
- Cooper Kupp
- Josh Reynolds
- Odell Beckham Jr.
- Ben Skowronek
- Demarcus Robinson
- Puka Nacua
- Jordan Whittington
Woods left the Bills and turned into one of the top-25 wide receivers in the NFL. Beckham looked like a shell of himself with the Cleveland Browns before being on a trajectory for Super Bowl MVP in 2021. Demarcus Robinson has bounced around as a role player with teams like the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens, but is a key player in the Rams receiving room since joining the team last year.
The list above doesn’t even mention players like KhaDarel Hodge and Greg Dortch who spent time with the Rams who are still in the NFL. Lance McCutcheon likely doesn’t make the roster on other teams, but found some success in Los Angeles. It says a lot on a coaching staff that consistently has a lot of turnover that Yarber is the only coach outside of Chris Shula to have been on the staff every season.
Said head coach Sean McVay on Yarber,
“Well, I’ve just seen as consistent a human as I’ve ever been around. He loves these guys. He’s so invested in them. Every time that you bring up Eric Yarber’s name to people, you’ll see them smile...He’s one of those guys that you don’t want to let down. You want to be able to do right by him and I think that’s the way that his players play. They play for him. He coaches for them. He loves them. He’s invested in them and he truly cares about them more as a person than a player.”
At Yarber’s age, he’ll like never be an offensive coordinator like others on the Rams coaching staff. However, he’s also someone who has coached solely wide receivers for almost the last quarter-century and seems fine with that.
The Rams have gotten the most out their wide receivers in the McVay era and a lot of that has to do with the consistency brought by Yarber.
