6 surprise starters from LA Rams first depth chart

Punt returner

The LA Rams need wide receiver Cooper Kupp to be healthy and available for the NFL Playoffs. So seeing his name appear as the starting punt returner for the team was, how shall we say this lightly, enough to piss us off. Now, don’t get us wrong. We love Cooper Kupp in the passing game. In fact, he could be in line for a career-high season with catching passes from veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford.

But in the past two trips into the postseason, the LA Rams have done it without Cooper Kupp, one of their most dangerous offensive weapons. He was rehabbing a surgically repaired ACL in 2018 and missed the LA Rams Super Bowl run. In 2020, he missed the playoffs once more, this time to bursitis in his knee.

The cure for bursitis is to change the way you do things. Give the muscle and tissue a chance to recharge, to heal. So why in the world would anyone place more duties onto the wide receiver who is already struggling to stay on the football field? Did the team truly find no reason to assign Tutu Atwell or Landen Akers the role of punt returner?

On top of the shock of seeing Cooper Kupp’s name listed under punt returner, comes the images of Kupp trying to shag punts in 2020. He never appeared to be comfortable back there. Most of the time, it seemed to be just a fair catch, but even those were frightening as you couldn’t be sure if the catch would be made.

Even if Kupp is the best punt returner in the entire NFC West, I’d rather he stuck to catching passes and assign the role to another player struggling to make the team. Was this some sort of strategized psychological nudge to get one of the bubble players to step up and earn the punt return role? Or is this simply to screw with the fans? Who’s to say?  But I will point to this decision if Cooper Kupp is injured this year as a contributing cause. If the LA Rams truly are in win-now mode, they’ve got to do a better job of protected Kupp’s knees.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: Well, the depth chart was apparently published without HC Sean McVay’s approval. When asked about Cooper Kupp as the team’s punt returner, McVay stated Kupp won’t be the starting PR.

While that alleviates a lot of concern, it now places a significant part of the depth chart into question. What’s correct? What’s estimated? What’s just flat-out wrong? We’ll find out some of those answers in the first preseason game.