2020 goals for LA Rams offense? Realized potential

LA Rams 2020 goals for the offense should include unleashing player’s true potential

The LA Rams are a solid offensively oriented team, a very efficient offense that must now seek ways to become proficient.  Despite sounding the same, proficiency is not the same as efficiency.  Proficiency is a high degree of skill and competence, usually acquired through a high frequency of accomplishing the task. Efficiency is the elevated ratio of success to attempts, usually translating inputs to a nearly equal amount of outputs.

A lot of jabber to say that the Rams have some very effective offensive weapons, but only in light of their relative usage.  To become true NFL stars, they will need a greater share of snaps, targets, overall opportunities. Some are on the cusp of that designation already.  LA Rams wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Robert Woods both enjoyed over 1000 yards receiving in 2019.  In 2020, they’ll look to add touchdowns to their arsenal.  So too did tight end Tyler Higbee prove his value in December 2019, showing up with over 500 passing yards in just five NFL games.

Better use of weaponry

So the Rams have some solid contributors on offense. Solid enough to warrant respect, but still not quite to the “fear” stage for opposing defenses. That’s where the team needs to intensify the offensive scheming, planning, potential. How can the LA Rams tap that offensive potential more effectively in 2020?

How indeed? It starts with the playbook and the coaching.

Break the rhythm

Humans by nature establish predictable patterns of behavior. We all do it. We take the same routes to and from work. We shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, hang out with the same friends. All unknowingly. We gravitate towards predictable patterns in virtually everything we do. The LA Rams coaches are human and are subject to the same gravity towards predictable patterns. That predictability allows opposing teams to guess successfully at what those patterns might be.

It was not until the LA Rams, out of desperation, reformulated the offense with new wrinkles that stabilized the team’s running and passing game. The rapid inclusion of two tight ends on offense in a variety of uses gave NFL defenses something new to ponder, diagnose, and defend. The result? TE Tyler Higbee racked up over 500 yards receiving in one month’s time. But now that the Rams had a successful month with two tight ends, defenses will analyze the new rhythm and will eventually adapt.

New strategies

The Rams must introduce even more randomness to the offense. And they can do exactly that with the addition of offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell. If one person gravitates towards a predictable pattern, then surely two persons alternating will complicate that discernable patter significantly.  If head coach Sean McVay loves to go with two tight end sets on third downs with less than five yards to go, Kevin O’Connell may opt for a spread offense with four wide receivers.

The LA Rams have enough offensive firepower. The team boasts three tight ends and four wide receivers that could start on virtually another NFL team. The Rams need to find better ways to get the ball off the hands of the quarterback and into the hands of those playmakers. The LA Rams fell from an average of 32.9 points per game in 2018 to a still respectable 24.6 points per game in 2019. What will it take to restore the Rams scoring efficiency?  Finding new encryption methods for the offense, one that opposing defenses cannot decipher.