The Rams have two clear options at receiver: Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson. So who is likely to be the third option behind them?
“I think it’s really early,” coach Sean McVay told reporters on Wednesday, “but Tutu Atwell is a guy that’s really done an excellent job. He’s super smart. Obviously, he’s well known for his speed, but he’s really done a great job in this offseason and it showed up today of really establishing himself, playing with aggressive hands, understanding the nuances of how we want to work edges and separate where he fits within the concepts.”
McVay, as he often does, then rattled off a bunch of names of other players on the depth chart: rookie Puka Nacua, Ben Skowronek, DeMarcus Robinson, and Tyler Johnson.
“The beauty of this team in general, for the people that you guys have covered us for the last handful of years, there truly is competition and that’s something for us to really evaluate and be good about finding who are the best 11 guys on offense, defense, special teams, and what are the different rotations that we can come up with as we navigate training camp?” McVay said. “But I was encouraged, I was ready to just answer a couple guys and then I start thinking about practice and a lot of guys really made plays and are worthy of being mentioned and so that’s certainly a good problem for us to have right now.”
The Rams currently have 12 receivers on the roster. Given that McVay specifically named only five receivers beyond the top two should make the remaining five a little nervous about their prospects.
Meanwhile, Atwell — a second-round pick in 2021 — is entering his third season. If he’s ever going to step up, this would be the year to do it.
