Who the LA Rams passed on to take WR TuTu Atwell

When the LA Rams took Louisville WR Chatarius ‘Tutu’ Atwell with pick No. 57 of the second round, my first thoughts were yes, he’s speedy but he’s only 5-foot-9, 155-pounds and the team wears blue uniforms. Add that all up and you got Tutu the Total Smurf.

Obviously, this is a head coach Sean McVay-inspired selection because it’s always all about the passing game, and the team has very real and pressing needs at center and linebacker, cornerback, and edge rusher. C’est la vie.

In an upcoming season where this team’s future is this minute, once again, the team goes offense with its most important pick. The already crowded wide receiver room just passed the standing-room-only designation and is now approaching their cup-runneth-over status. There’s only one football – how are you going to share it with Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, Cooper Kupp, and Desean Jackson already in the fold? Let’s add another one because apparently, the prevailing thought emanating from their Malibu draft house was that you can never have too many wide receivers.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma center Creed Humphrey was bypassed and two quality linebackers in LSU’s Jabril Cox and Missouri’s Nick Bolton were both left on the board. And the Kansas City Chiefs must have been so very pleased happy to see the Rams take a Smurfy wide receiver because they immediately snatched up Bolton with the very next pick in the draft at No. 58.

Seriously, why do you suppose it is that the Rams never seem to want to draft a linebacker any sooner than round three? Do they just not value that position highly enough? Their linebacking corps is weak, has been weak since Corey Littleton left. If you watch the tape of the Rams’ loss, err losses, to the San Francisco 49ers last season, then what you see is inside linebackers playing out of position and getting beaten like a drum all day long with quick, short passes inside the hash marks.

In LB Jabril Cox, they coulda added a 6-foot-4, 234-pound linebacker with that proverbial sideline-to-sideline speed that the NFL game now clearly demands. In OC Creed Humphrey they coulda added the Rimington Award winner as the nation’s best center. But noooo, it’s now apparent this team seeks to out-score its opponents.

One face full of Ridell, or maybe just a stiff wind, might be enough to put Tutu Atwell on the IR list.