The Los Angeles Rams keep acting like their wide receiver depth will hold up when they need it, and the latest stretch of football says otherwise.
That issue was on full display against the Philadelphia Eagles, when injuries at tight end pushed the Rams away from the 13 personnel look they’d planned to lean on and back into 11 personnel. That shift exposed the same problem that has lingered for weeks: outside of Puka Nacua and Davante Adams, the passing game has not gotten enough from the rest of the receiver room.
The Rams had another chance to chase a veteran solution this week and passed again. Since free agency, they could have gone after Stefon Diggs, Keenan Allen, or Brandin Cooks.
When Odell Beckham Jr. became available after being released by the New York Giants last week, that opened another door. Instead, Beckham signed with the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad on Wednesday morning.
Vikings are signing veteran WR Odell Beckham Jr. to their practice squad, as @Schultz_Report reported.
For a while, the Rams’ approach made sense. If the offense was going to lean heavily on 13 personnel, the third wide receiver mattered less.
But the NFL rarely lets a team stay exactly where it wants to stay, and the Rams ran into that reality Sunday. Terrance Ferguson was placed on injured reserve, Colby Parkinson missed the game with an AC sprain, and the offense had to pivot.
That pivot was messy. In Week 4, the Rams used 11 personnel on 88 percent of their offensive snaps, their highest rate since Week 5 last year.
Before that, they had been at just 56 percent. The jump was driven by necessity, not design, and it showed.
Head coach Sean McVay acknowledged the uncertainty this week on the Coach McVay Show.
“What’s our identity? Because we’ve had some key figures that are in and out of the lineup, it’s been hard for us to establish.”
The numbers back up the frustration. Over the first three weeks, the Rams posted -0.02 EPA per play out of 11 personnel, which ranked 16th in the NFL.
In 13 personnel, they were at 0.1 EPA per play, good for fifth-best in the league. The passing game told the same story: a 60 percent passing success rate out of 13 personnel in the first three weeks, compared with just 43.5 percent out of 11 personnel.
Against the Eagles in the first half, that 11 personnel passing success rate sat at 42.1 percent.
The problem is not just the formation. It’s the players who are supposed to fill those snaps.
Nacua and Adams have done the heavy lifting, combining for 36 catches, 589 yards, and two touchdowns. Everyone else at wide receiver on the roster has totaled 10 catches for 151 yards and one touchdown.
The Rams haven't gotten much out of their WRs not named Puka Nacua and Davante Adams.Puka and Davante: 36 catches, 589 yards, 2 TDsAll other WRs combined: 10 catches, 151 yards, 1 TD
Technically, Terrance Ferguson is the third wide receiver in this offense, but that label only matters until he’s unavailable. He will be out at least the next three weeks, and when the Rams needed the next man up against Philadelphia, the production simply wasn’t there.
Konata Mumpfield, Jordan Whittington, and Tutu Atwell combined for three catches on six targets for 19 yards. None of them finished with more than one catch or more than 10 yards.
That stood in stark contrast to last season, when the Rams last leaned on 11 personnel at more than an 80 percent rate in Week 5. In that game, Atwell caught two passes for 72 yards and Whittington added two catches for 33 yards.
This season, Mumpfield has mostly been the first option behind the top two receivers. He has played 49.5 percent of the offense’s snaps. Whittington led the group in snaps last week, but Mumpfield has been the main name in the rotation for most of the year.
The efficiency numbers have not been kind. Among wide receivers with at least 50 routes run, Mumpfield’s 42.9 percent targeted success rate ranks 76th.
NFL Pro has him at a -6.6 percent catch rate over expected, while Whittington sits at -11.4 percent. When Stafford has targeted either player, he is 8-for-17 for 124 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Stafford’s passer rating is 65.2 when throwing to Mumpfield and 74.3 when throwing to Whittington. Mumpfield owns an EPA per target of -0.11, while Whittington is at -0.27.
Mumpfield has shown some things, but the catch-point production and overall efficiency have not been enough, and his 1.17 yards per route run ranks 61st out of 81 qualifying wide receivers.
The larger point is that the Rams do not need a third receiver to become a centerpiece. They do need someone they can trust when injuries force the offense off its preferred track. That is the gap they keep trying to paper over, and it nearly burned them against the Eagles before Kyren Williams became involved in the passing game.
For now, the Rams are still betting that Mumpfield, Whittington, and Atwell can provide enough. Sunday suggested that confidence may be misplaced. They survived Philadelphia, but the next time the offense is forced to lean on that group, the outcome might not be so forgiving.
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