Assessing Rams offensive schemes since the bye week

Reviewing the Rams offense at the break

https://www.turfshowtimes.com/los-angeles-rams-depth-chart/128873/reviewing-the-rams-offense-at-the-break?utm_campaign=dhtwitter&utm_content=%3Cmedia_url%3E&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

After a start that could best be described as hot and cold, the Los Angeles Rams offense showed the Jacksonville Jaguars (and the rest of the NFL) that they were capable of an efficient four-quarter effort. The finishing stats weren’t gaudy, but the Rams, for the first time this season, controlled the flow of the game from start to finish in a 35-7 win.

The bye week offers a good time to review and discuss, not only where the Rams have been, but also where they’re going. Using the snap chart as guide, I’ll offer my thoughts on the offense and members of the forum community can set me straight, agree, or expand on the first seven games.

Quarterback
With Matthew Stafford (450, 99.3%) playing so well, the debate over who will succeed him has cooled. After all, he’s under contract for 2026 and there’s little room for contract drama about guaranteed money. According to overthecap.com, he will have $40 mil vested on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. How well has Staff played? Sparkling, to say the least. He’s in the Top 10 of almost all statistical passing categories and more importantly, his 17 : 2 touchdown to interception ratio signifies how well he’s protecting the ball. Jimmy Garappolo (3, .66%) had a couple of mop up snaps vs Jacksonville, his only action of the season.

Running back
Not much difference from the past two years in this unit. Kyren Williams (337, 74.4%) is the lead dog and will handle 60-70 percent of the carries as well. His vision and toughness between the tackles make him a fit into the McVay run scheme Where there is some difference is how the Rams are using him as a receiver. KWill is on pace for 50 catches, highest for an L.A. back since the heyday of Todd Gurley (2017-18). Still mostly check downs and short circle routes, but a departure from the past just the same.

Rookie Jarquez Hunter (0, 0%) has only been activated for five of the seven games and last week, Ronnie Rivers (0, 0%) was elevated off the practice squad to be RB#3. Neither have seen any action on offense and limited to a handful of special teams reps. With Rivers, that’s not a surprise, it’s what his career has been built on, but the preseason/camp love that the Rams coaching was heaping on Hunter was obviously just a fleeting summer romance.

That leaves Blake Corum (108, 23.8%). He shown some flashes of potential, looking particularly strong off tackle and out in space, but appears to lack some of the “A gap” toughness that Rams run scheme demands. He’s already at his snap count from last year and the offensive braintrust seems confident in his use. As the season progresses, Corum is on a pace to run for 500 yards, if he can show consistency catching the ball as well, he’ll be a solid RB#2.

Wide receiver
As the stat and metric numbers show, Puka Nacua (291, 64%) is arguably the best receiver in the NFL when on the field. That’s the rub, isn’t it. Even though you really can’t tell by production (#1 on a per game basis), he’s now missed one game in 2025, there may well be another, and been limited in three others. That’s on top of missing six games last year. The one plus about Nacua being out of last Sunday’s game was that it forced Matthew Stafford to rely on the complete corps of receivers. No one wants to see it on a regular basis, but certainly nice to have as a backup plan.

The jury is still out on how much Davante Adams (363, 80%) really has remaining in the tank long term, but on the short, his guile can hide a lot of shortcomings. He still has the chops to create separation on routes and has learned over the years just how much he can push off in tight coverage. A master class. Now it’s about some cleanup work with those hands. The Rams are doing a good job of managing his workload to keep him fresh over the course of the year.

Jordan Whittington (280, 62%) has taken over as WR#3 snap-wise, playing twice as much as his rookie campaign, but has yet to post much production. Konata Mumpfield (78, 12%) caught his first NFL touchdown vs the Jags and may get more looks if Nacua is out awhile.

Tutu Atwell (152, 33.6%) looked to be on the rise. Against the 49ers, he had his biggest workload of the year (45 reps, 4tgt, 2rec, 72 yds), then strained a hamstring in practice and not only missed Week 6, but was limited to 10 reps in London. The Rams seem content to use him clear outs and deep over patterns, but his use is actually less multiple than before he was paid the $10mil. Xavier Smith (56, 12%) received the Tutu treatment last Sunday with 33 of his season reps on the pitch at Wembley and only garnering four targets.

Tight end
The future is Terrance Ferguson (34, 7.5%) and the Rams need to keep upping his time on the field. L.A. did in fact double his reps from Week 6. Here’s the deal, none of the other three tight ends are particularly good blockers, are limited to short routes, and they tend to be lumbering (but not powerful) with the ball in their hands. TFerg needs the blocking work and can press the defense downfield, whether inline or from the slot. Tyler Higbee (219, 48.3%) had three catches, but two others clanked off his hands, his drop rate near 10% over his last three seasons. Colby Parkinson (129, 28.5%) continues to be a poor blocker. If you watch the replays, he misses way too many on a weekly basis. Davis Allen (192, 42.4) has improved as a blocker over his career, only getting one short target per game.

Center
To remedy what the Rams called a “communication” issue, they re-signed Coleman Shelton (453, 100%) in March 2025 and quickly named him as the starting pivot. For L.A., he was the known quantity to best stabilize the position. He had five pervious seasons, including 32 start before slipping away as a free agent for the 2024 season. Shelton is on the small side and has always had problems setting an anchor against the bull rush and that hasn’t changed with more experience. Pass blocking is always an adventure, but he can win in the run game. What he does well is move, smoothly getting to the second level, whether off a double team in duo, getting out in front of screens, or hustling to cut off blocks.

Beaux Limmer (52, 11.5%) has become the forgotten man, down from 14 starts and 917 reps last year. He hasn’t played since Week 3 and recently has been found on the Rams game day inactive list.

Guard
When talking about the Rams best free agent additions, Kevin Dotson (427, 94.3%) has to be towards the top. Adept vs both the run and pass, Dotson is rated #2 overall, and #7 in run blocking. Pass blocking is a bit of a conundrum, while he has been excellent in sacks and pressures allowed, when he gets beat, it’s right off the snap and his time to pressure numbers don’t match the rest of his stellar play.

Steve Avila (154, 34%) is back at left guard after missing most of four games. Injuries have limited Avila in 11 of his last 24 games. Justin Dedich (273, 60.3%) filled in with Avila out and was serviceable. Much like Coleman Shelton, he’s a smaller specimen and has a similar playstyle, better on the move.

Tackle
One decision that lingers over the bye week is who will play right tackle against New Orleans on November 2? It becomes particularly difficult if 11-year vet Rob Havenstein’s (252, 57.8%) balky ankle has healed. Hav has missed all of October after missing six games last year. Warren McClendon (188, 41.5%) has stepped in and stepped up in Havenstein’s absence, allowing just two pressures and nary a sack.

On the other bookend, Alaric Jackson (450, 99.3%) has put the blood clot issues behind him and turned in solid work. Not a dominator, AJax has instead laid down consistent work in both the pass and run games. The two vets that L.A. added, DJ Humphries and David Quessenberry, as possible replacements in case Jackson’s health shut him down, have three mop up reps apiece.

Year to date
Scoring is up, 25 points per game, L.A.’s highest number since the 2021 Super Bowl run (27.1). Quarterback Matthew Stafford is showing a veteran’s steady hand and the Rams are letting him sling it, at about a 60-40 pass/run ratio. Explosive pass plays are up as Staff is averaging 8.8 air yards per attempt, his best since 2021.

Sean McVay and the offensive brain trust are stretching out, ready to pressure opposing defenses with a non-stop array of formations, motions, and QB placements to create mismatches. The Rams are not only using 11, 12, and 13 formations, but a myriad of players to man them, making the possibilities almost endless. The offensive line, admittedly out of sorts early, is getting healthy starting to gel. You can see the improvement over the last couple of games.

Here at the break, standing at 5-2, we fans should put away the pair of woulda, coulda, shoulda losses. November will be epic. Five games in total, two very winnable (Saints and Panthers), dispensing retribution to the 49ers, and a pair of tough home games with the Seahawks and Buccaneers.

As the great @JourdanRodrigue pointed out, the @RamsNFL were in 13 personnel on 35 of their 77 plays against the Saints. Did a video on this last week. The Rams had not run a 13 personnel play until the second half of the Ravens game in Week 6. Now, it's a major staple.… pic.twitter.com/27E96KOCV0

— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) November 3, 2025

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
If Matthew Stafford has played like an MVP all season, as Davante Adams says, what’s changed around him to build a historic stretch?

4 key areas jump out right now as an evolution of the Rams offense:

***

from With Matthew Stafford ‘on a heater,’ Rams get their revenge in blowout of 49ers

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6793264/2025/11/10/rams-matthew-stafford-blowout-win-49ers/?source=emp_shared_article

…

“It’s looked like MVP play to me all year, to be honest,” said Adams, who played with Aaron Rodgers during his MVP seasons in 2014, 2020 and 2021. “Even certain games, like the pick he threw against Tennessee and the way he bounced back after that, that’s how an MVP plays to me.”

If Stafford hasn’t changed since then, it’s a testament to everything else that has.

The offensive line has gotten healthy. In the first seven weeks, the Rams played without the same five starters beginning and finishing games, with left guard Steve Avila and right tackle Rob Havenstein missing multiple weeks. That left McVay pressing on critical short-yardage plays and running Williams into a wall. It had Williams pressing to make plays and fumbling in back-to-back games.

The past two weeks, with the line healthy, Williams and Blake Corum have combined for 301 yards and three touchdowns on 4.6 yards per carry — with zero fumbles.

“All we have to do is get the ball secure, and the holes are going to be there to be hit and be made,” Williams said.

That line of Alaric Jackson, Avila, Coleman Shelton, Kevin Dotson and Havenstein has let Stafford cook from clean pockets, with the lowest sack rate of his career now down to 4.3 percent. The 49ers did get to him for eight hits but had just one sack.

Nacua’s absence also created an opportunity that hadn’t existed before. Stafford and Adams saw almost no time together in the preseason with the quarterback nursing a back issue, and the rustiness was evident in Adams’ 47 percent catch rate through six games, at that point the lowest of his 12-year career.

But a week of trading texts through the night in Baltimore and three practices without Nacua pulled all the details into focus. In the three games since facing the Ravens, they’ve connected on 70 percent of passes with six touchdowns. And all of a sudden, Adams entered Sunday’s game with the NFL lead in touchdowns before adding his ninth on a 2-yard out pattern where Stafford placed the ball where only Adams could run under it.

“He’s like a fine wine,” McVay said of Adams, “just getting better with age.”

Adams is now often the sole receiver on the field with three tight ends. McVay has long been an 11-personnel aficionado, but he ran 13-personnel on 49 percent of snaps against the New Orleans Saints and went to that well again on Sunday, leading to touchdown catches for Parkinson and Davis Allen. And for a third straight week, the Rams found a big play from second-round rookie Terrance Ferguson, who had a 32-yard catch to ignite a critical scoring drive on Sunday.

The Rams’ offense has changed because its coach has, like he promised he would.

“The way he inspires guys and the culture that he’s built throughout the years here allows you to fall back on that when you hit adversity,” linebacker Nate Landman said.

The success of the run game and the diversification of the pass game have turned Nacua from a high-volume engine who risked injury into more of a clutch lever. That’s what he was on Sunday, when he finished with five catches for 64 yards and scored a touchdown on a screen pass, ignited a scoring drive with another screen and converted a fourth down by lunging through a defender.

As well as things are going, this isn’t a team without risk or issues.

Adams suffered an oblique injury in the fourth quarter that the Rams are hopeful won’t keep him out for Sunday’s showdown with the Seattle Seahawks (7-2). They’ve already lost Tutu Atwell to injured reserve, though they hope to have him back after two more weeks. And Nacua has missed parts of three games with injuries.

Their field goal unit is amid a rebuild after leading the league in missed kicks through the first eight games, and Sunday’s six-touchdown performance didn’t factor into whether a new kicker or long snapper fixed it. They have a pass defense missing Ahkello Witherspoon that can leak if the pass rush isn’t getting home, as Sunday showcased, when the 49ers scored four touchdowns and backup quarterback Mac Jones finished 33-of-39 for 319 yards, three scores and an interception.

But this is no longer an offense or a quarterback just spamming the ball to Pro Bowl wide receivers and left praying when it isn’t working. That was the lesson the 49ers’ loss offered them. That’s what a healthy offensive line, running backs zeroed in on ball security, improving tight ends and a play caller who challenged himself to be better have turned on its head.

“Your scars either strengthen you or make you weaker,” McVay said. “There’s never a good story without a little bit of adversity anyway. I think you only learn about people when you go through those challenging times. (The overtime loss) certainly was a very humbling and challenging night, but I’ve loved the responses.”

Last year after the bye the Rams played 4 games against teams who were top 10 in sacks.

Vikes x 2 (5th), Seattle x 2 (10th).

Same OL as now except at center.

In 1 of those 4 games, they gave up 3 sacks. but it was the end of the season subs game w/Garappolo at qb.

In the other 3 games they gave up 2 total.

So that might hint that the current Rams OL can play against a team that gets sacks.

Meanwhile Darnold’s sack percentage (4.2%) is virtually the same as Stafford’s (4.32%). Except Stafford throws more (310 to 228).

wv wrote:

Rams added an intriguing TE to their practice squad, fwiw.

TE – Davis Allen. Height: 6’6″. 20 yard shuttle: 4.45
TE – Colby Parkinson Height 6’7″. 20 yard shuttle: 4.46
————-

Practice Squad (7th round pick of Vikings in 2022)
TE – Nick Muse, Height 6’5″ 20 yard shuttle: 4.26

w
v

It’s the old rule. If yer gonna play 1, you need 2. If yer gonna play 3, you need 4. Rams play 4, so they need 5.

BTW Ferguson was the fastest TE in his draft class. Ferguson: 6’5, 247, 4.6 40 time. He didn’t run a 20 yard shuttle at the combine.

NFL offenses are falling behind Sean McVay as he is able to use personnel groupings. I'll explain. pic.twitter.com/xWLuy3fWd2

— Quincy Avery (@QuincyAvery) November 14, 2025