Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Overall, they don’t seem to spend on center or guard. They seem to spend mid-tier money at RT and invest in LT (if that LT is an elite player). I’m certainly concerned about their long-term plans there after 2022. They did, however, like some guys in this draft class and whether the board just didn’t fall their way or they de-prioritized the long-term future in favor of short-term help on special teams and on o/d (with their first two picks), depends on who you ask. I’m skeptical about the position changes on the OL, if you couldn’t tell lol. Here’s my (educated) pencil-in at the moment, from left to right: Whitworth, Edwards, Corbett, Evans, Havenstein. Depth: Noteboom, Anchrum, Allen/Shelton/Me in a hamster bubble, Anchrum/Demby, Brewer.
Do you think the Rams will sign perhaps Austin Reiter to an one year deal?
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
here’s the thing with Reiter: The Chiefs let him walk in favor of Austin Blythe, who the Rams only offered slightly more money to in free agency. They could still bring somebody in, but I’d assume they’d have to see a looming fiasco on their OL if so.
What gave the Rams front office confidence that Atwell can succeed despite his size?
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
We haven’t really gotten a straight answer on that specific question, so here’s my parsing of info/tidbits I’ve gotten since the draft: He keeps his lower body really controlled so there aren’t any bad hit angles upon contact, he won’t be schemed through traffic in the ways that Kupp and Woods are (instead there are ways to protect a WR off the line), they’re not going to try to run him against a bunch of press-man or anything like that, they will use him a ton on pre and at-snap motions and sweeps plus work him into space via bunch formations and the like where other receivers are working the more physical stuff (like we’ve seen from Woods for years, for example). I see Atwell in a ton of sweeps/motions packages, and a “bunch” of bunch formations. The thing here is you know you shouldn’t be using him in the physical things like Woods/Kupp can do, so you’ll probably keep him out of the middle of the field. The idea is those two concepts work in complement: Accounting for Tutu takes extra coverage/traffic off Woods/Kupp in the middle of the field while Woods/Kupp working that space helps scheme open Tutu.
I do think that Stafford can activate eligible receivers very, very well – and in bulk. But we also have to take scheme and system into consideration – the Rams will not be able to just send Tutu downfield and instead must build pieces into their offense to help him succeed (not a bad thing – you’re supposed to do that with that kind of speed). I also was thinking about how curious it is to not hear a lot of discussion about the concussions Cooks had when he was here. I was on the other side of the country at the time, so maybe that’s a part of why. But it might be something to go back and re-visit. How did their plans for him change when he started missing time, for example? How was he really affected, from any symptoms to the setback of missing practices and games? I’m not making any assumptions here, but seems like these would be valid questions.
In the short term, the Rams do a lot of things with their route concepts that protect the non-blocking receiver, such as bunch formations, sweeps, etc….I see a lot of that in Tutu’s future, plus a little added bulk as the years pass once he’s in with Reggie Scott and Justin Lovett.
defense–they need to replace production from Hill, Brockers, Ebukam, and JJ.
Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Sebastian Joseph-Day is really going to be a player to watch this year, from what I hear, and we didn’t get to see what A’Shawn Robinson could really do. They may ask Bobby Brown and Earnest Brown to play a situational role earlier than expected…I still am concerned about the OLB rotation opposite Leonard Floyd and it certainly seems like it’ll be a rotation.
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Agamemnon
