Robert Woods hitting 1,000-yard club shows Los Angeles Rams got a steal in 2017

For the first time in his career, Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Robert Woods has officially hit the 1,000-yard receiving mark.

Between a poor offensive line along with a weak receiving corps, the Los Angeles Rams didn’t exactly have the best of players on offense during the 2016 season, which is part of the reason why Jared Goff failed to win a single game in seven starts as a rookie.

However, the Rams deserve plenty of credit for the approach they took during the 2017 offseason to make sure the offense was in much better shape during Goff’s sophomore campaign, which was exactly the case.

Without question, the signing of a key veteran in Andrew Whitworth to provide a much-needed boost to the offensive line was the top move made by Los Angeles during the free agency period.

As for the most underrated move from that period of time, well let’s just say the decision to bring Robert Woods on board ranks near the top of the list.

Seeing how the top two receivers for the Rams at the time were Kenny Britt and Tavon Austin, it’s easy to understand why the team was in search of help at wide receiver once free agency got underway in 2017. But when it came to Woods at first, not every Los Angeles fan was sold.

Sure, the addition of Woods would put Goff in a much better situation when looking at what he was working with as a rookie, but some fans felt the team could have made a stronger push for other receivers.

As great of a signing as this seemed, there were some who questioned the move by the Rams to think that a player with a career high of 699 receiving yards would solve their issues at the wide receiver position.

Even when Los Angeles pulled off the surprise move in the preseason to acquire Sammy Watkins from the Buffalo Bills, Wood was one of those players in which no one really knew what kind of impact he would make as a new target for Goff.

Turns out, the decision by Los Angeles to bring Woods on board when they did turned out to be one of the biggest steals from the 2017 free agency period.

Watching Woods shine in his first year with the team by catching 56 passes for 781 yards with five touchdowns in 2017 was impressive to witness, but the wideout has taken things to a whole new level during the 2018 season.

Thanks to Woods continuing to develop the necessary chemistry with Goff along with benefitting from playing alongside some of his teammates like Brandin Cooks and Todd Gurley, the Rams wideout has already crossed the 1,000-yard receiving mark in 2018 for the first time in his career.

By already setting career highs of 71 catches for 1,032 yards along with tying his career high of five touchdowns, one can only imagine what the final numbers will be for Woods once Los Angeles wraps up these final three games.

Looking back, thank goodness the Rams were willing to take a chance on Woods when they did since the team clearly saw something special in the wideout that most teams didn’t realize until it was already too late.

Otherwise, who knows how different these past two seasons would be for the Rams on offense when considering that Woods has made it clear just how valuable he is to the team’s success.