I notice that the Rams heavily featured their wide receivers last year. They not only pass a lot, but the vast majority of those balls go to the wide receivers.
If we look at just wide receivers, the Rams led the league last year in every receiving category – catches, yards and touchdowns.
It helps having Cooper Kupp, of course, but the Rams got to almost 4,000 yards when including their other wide receivers.
COMBINED CATCHES BY WIDE RECEIVERS | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Team | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
LA Rams | 286 | 3,964 | 13.9 | 32 |
Buffalo | 284 | 3,299 | 11.6 | 22 |
Tampa Bay | 282 | 3,503 | 12.4 | 26 |
Dallas | 255 | 3,347 | 13.1 | 25 |
LA Chargers | 252 | 3,171 | 12.6 | 22 |
Pittsburgh | 250 | 2,747 | 11.0 | 12 |
Arizona | 250 | 3,073 | 12.3 | 20 |
Kansas City | 244 | 2,820 | 11.6 | 20 |
Minnesota | 240 | 3,181 | 13.3 | 29 |
Green Bay | 240 | 3,086 | 12.9 | 27 |
Cincinnati | 236 | 3,551 | 15.0 | 25 |
Jacksonville | 228 | 2,507 | 11.0 | 9 |
Las Vegas | 223 | 2,889 | 13.0 | 16 |
NY Jets | 222 | 2,649 | 11.9 | 14 |
Baltimore | 216 | 2,420 | 11.2 | 10 |
Miami | 207 | 2,244 | 10.8 | 14 |
Houston | 203 | 2,463 | 12.1 | 15 |
Detroit | 203 | 2,326 | 11.5 | 13 |
Carolina | 196 | 2,257 | 11.5 | 10 |
Tennessee | 194 | 2,435 | 12.6 | 13 |
New England | 193 | 2,396 | 12.4 | 12 |
Seattle | 191 | 2,611 | 13.7 | 25 |
Chicago | 185 | 2,408 | 13.0 | 11 |
Washington | 184 | 2,218 | 12.1 | 10 |
San Francisco | 181 | 2,777 | 15.3 | 17 |
NY Giants | 180 | 2,163 | 12.0 | 5 |
Indianapolis | 177 | 2,184 | 12.3 | 16 |
Denver | 171 | 2,257 | 13.2 | 8 |
Atlanta | 159 | 1,736 | 10.9 | 9 |
New Orleans | 155 | 2,141 | 13.8 | 16 |
Philadelphia | 149 | 1,993 | 13.4 | 11 |
Cleveland | 141 | 1,873 | 13.3 | 7 |
At the same time, the Rams did not use their other positions much in the passing game. They finished with top-5 passing numbers overall, but they were the only team in the league that didn’t reach 1,000 receiving yards with their backs and tight ends. Los Angeles completed a league-low 120 passes to those positions.
Tyler Higbee was one of those guys. I think he’s a decent enough pass catcher, but they just didn’t use him much.
The Rams get Cam Akers back this year, and he catches better than the backs they were featuring last year. Akers had 8 catches in his four playoff games. But the Rams completed a league-low 53 passes to running backs last year, and their running backs caught even fewer passes in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
It’s a receiver-heavy offense.
COMBINED CATCHES BY BACKS AND TIGHT ENDS | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Team | No | Yards | Avg | TD |
Kansas City | 203 | 2,119 | 10.4 | 17 |
Atlanta | 218 | 2,251 | 10.3 | 11 |
Tampa Bay | 210 | 1,880 | 9.0 | 17 |
LA Chargers | 191 | 1,843 | 9.6 | 16 |
Las Vegas | 206 | 1,919 | 9.3 | 7 |
Cleveland | 179 | 1,735 | 9.7 | 14 |
Dallas | 188 | 1,615 | 8.6 | 14 |
Baltimore | 180 | 1,847 | 10.3 | 11 |
Denver | 182 | 1,598 | 8.8 | 12 |
New England | 171 | 1,702 | 10.0 | 12 |
Miami | 194 | 1,698 | 8.8 | 6 |
Detroit | 190 | 1,537 | 8.1 | 9 |
Washington | 171 | 1,530 | 8.9 | 11 |
San Francisco | 162 | 1,660 | 10.2 | 9 |
Green Bay | 161 | 1,444 | 9.0 | 12 |
Pittsburgh | 175 | 1,270 | 7.3 | 11 |
Philadelphia | 157 | 1,587 | 10.1 | 8 |
Arizona | 165 | 1,539 | 9.3 | 7 |
NY Giants | 169 | 1,282 | 7.6 | 9 |
Tennessee | 164 | 1,304 | 8.0 | 9 |
Indianapolis | 146 | 1,402 | 9.6 | 10 |
Cincinnati | 148 | 1,255 | 8.5 | 11 |
New Orleans | 134 | 1,244 | 9.3 | 13 |
Chicago | 156 | 1,366 | 8.8 | 7 |
Buffalo | 131 | 1,151 | 8.8 | 14 |
Minnesota | 157 | 1,248 | 7.9 | 5 |
Carolina | 152 | 1,316 | 8.7 | 4 |
Houston | 151 | 1,167 | 7.7 | 6 |
NY Jets | 134 | 1,309 | 9.8 | 5 |
Seattle | 133 | 1,204 | 9.1 | 5 |
Jacksonville | 133 | 1,167 | 8.8 | 3 |
LA Rams | 120 | 929 | 7.7 | 9 |
—Ian Allan