Chris Givens To Become One Of NFL’s Best

Last year in the 2012 NFL draft the Rams were looking for a wide receiver that could make big plays. Therefore they drafted, Brian Quick in the second round and Chris Givens in the 4th round. The Rams were expecting Quick to be the playmaker, little did they know that Chris Givens, a 4th round pick out of Wake Forest would be the guy they had been looking for since Torry Holt left.

In Givens’ first season he didn’t see much playing time in the first three weeks, but when he saw his chance in week three he took off for a historical run. Givens ended up setting a rookie record for consecutive games with a 50-plus yard reception with five. Givens caught a lot of defensive backs off guard with his explosive speed, including Seattle’s Richard Sherman. Givens made the deep ball his bread and butter throughout his rookie season and made ten catches that went for 20 or more yards. Givens brings a deep threat, big play ability to the Rams, one that they have been lacking for quite a while.

You can expect Givens to continue to be a deep threat a big play playmaker for the Rams in 2013. After just the first preseason game, Givens made three catches, one in which he beat Joe Hayden for 20 yards, another in which he beat Trevin Wade, and then to cap it all off he caught a three yard touchdown pass. After the game Givens said, “Me and Sam decided to try and send a message, ‘This is the effort you’re going to get every Sunday.” Therefore expect a lot of Chris Givens in 2013.

It is very possible that Chris Givens reaches the 1,000 yard mark this season, but in order to do that he will have to catch more than just the deep ball and the short bubble screens. Givens will have to improve his route running and be able to catch more intermediate routes as he only had nine catches last season between 11-20 yards. Givens focused a lot on that during the offseason and Bruce and Holt helped coach him up on it last week in practice. In fact Holt had this to say about Givens, “He’s done a really good job with his routes, cleaning up his routes,” Holt said. “Speed, big play ability, nice size, there’s still some things that he can work on from a technique standpoint. I think he’s working on it. He’s asking a lot of questions. He’s wanting to improve his game.”  If Givens can improve on that he could become on the league’s best receivers.

Givens was already seen as having the potential to be one of the league’s best deep threat due to his explosive speed. However, with improved route running, he could become one of the league’s best in general. Most of the offseason talk has been about Jared Cook and Tavon Austin and how big of an impact they are going to have, while everybody sort of forgot about Chris Givens and his impact on the offense. Givens may be the forgotten guy in St. Louis, but he wont be for much longer if he continues to develop into their true number one receiver and first 1,000 yard receiver since Torry Holt.