LA Rams: Five worst moves of the 2021 offseason

Drafting so many offensive skill positions

The last area of need on many draft projections for the LA Rams was any offensive skill position. So the LA Rams directed four of nine picks to that area. Go figure? Somewhere in the game planning, the Rams felt that adding Tutu Atwell, Jacob Harris, Jake Funk, and Ben Skowronek improve the team’s chances to win in 2021.

Los Angeles Rams

I might be persuaded to believe that if I thought that any of the four will see much of the football field this year. Why am I skeptical? The Rams tend to red-shirt offensive rookies. The team outright redshirted RB Xavier Jones, WR Trishton Jackson, WR J.J. Koski, and TE Brycen Hopkins. The Rams limited RB Raymond Calais to special teams used rookie WR Van Jefferson sparingly and even eased rookie RB Cam Akers into the offense slowly.  They make up five second-year players who are looking for a role, or increased role, in the offense this year.

The influx of four more to a group that had five players seeking to have a role in the offense adds up to nine players who will want, or better yet, need the football in their hands to make much of an impact in 2021 or any year in the future. Even as we slice and dice up the roster, the fact remains that Atwell will likely bump veteran Nsimba Webster off the roster. Jacob Harris will assume Gerald Everett’s vacated roster spot. Jake Funk will bump either Raymond Calais or Xavier Jones from the roster if he makes the team. And finally, Ben Skowronek will bump either Trishton Jackson or Johnny Mundt from the roster.

In the case of a rookie bumping a returning player from the roster, the improvement to the overall roster can actually be quite negligible or even regress somewhat. Will these new rookies make significant contributions to the team this year? Or will they simply be placeholders until 2022, when a new crop of Johnny-come-latelies will be added and bump the 2021 rookies to the curb? If that is the case, the Rams have wasted draft picks.