5 ways LA Rams play better than expected in 2020

Reason 3 – Rams offensive rookies Akers and Jefferson play major roles on offense

Much of the pessimism for the Rams in 2020 is the loss of RB Todd Gurley and WR Brandin Cooks as significant and productive players within head coach Sean McVay’s offense. While rookie additions of running back Cam Akers and wide receiver Van Jefferson will never replace them, they will have plenty of production in 2020. Let’s check out some of the reasons why.

The LA Rams running attack in 2019 was an abysmal 26th-ranked in the NFL in 2019. That’s not going to cut it. And while a majority of rushing yards were thanks to Gurley, so too were 60 percent of the rushes. The Rams offense eroded because the team simply did not have a reliable set of legs to count on in 2019. So the team grabbed RB Cam Akers out of the 2020 NFL Draft off the top-shelf, and the team will make great use of his many talents.

Trying to defend the Rams rookies

The LA Rams have not had a first-round pick in the NFL Draft for some time. But that has not prevented the team from finding some first-round talent in the draft. While many teams go for raw talent, the LA Rams seem to discern players to draft based on how that player fits with what the Rams plan to do with the role.  Along those lines, the Rams grabbed Akers due to his uncanny ability to get the most out of his blockers on his way to putting up huge yardage in the ground game.

So too, that explains the interest of the Rams in WR Van Jefferson, one of the best route-runners in the 2020 NFL Draft who possesses deceptive speed. He was often compared to the Rams own Cooper Kupp, a player whose contract runs out at the end of 2020. But 2020 will have the Rams flooding the field with weapons that defenses have struggled to stop in the past.  And just to make things more entertaining, the Rams added two more rookies to the mix whose play-style will be just as difficult to stop.