The down and dirty of the LA Rams initial 53-man roster

Offense (26)

The first stop on this tour of the Rams’ initial 53-man roster review is the offense. Of course, there were plenty of concerns with the injury bug hitting the running backs hard. But there was promising optimism as well, as the team discovered that quarterback Bryce Perkins had matured into a quarterback who could retain his poise in the pocket.

Quarterback (3)

Matthew Stafford, John Wolford, Bryce Perkins

Synopsis

The Rams are all about Stafford right now but don’t overestimate the hold that John Wolford has on the backup quarterback position right now. Perkins played 5/6ths of the team’s preseason games and showed tremendous poise while doing so. He is to Wolford this year, as Wolford was to Blake Bortles in 2019 – a young quarterback with a lot of positive momentum.

Wide receiver (6)

Robert Woods, Ben Skowronek (*), Cooper Kupp, Van Jefferson, DeSean Jackson, Tutu Atwell

Synopsis

I won’t lie, this is the area of the biggest surprise to me. The Rams are going with six wide receivers out of the gates, while DeSean Jackson has had that recent history of injury, Tutu Atwell is more special team than receiver right now, and the likes of both Trishton Jackson and J.J. Koski, both of whom were with the team in 2020, now gone.

As many pointed out during the draft, does it make sense to invest draft picks into receivers who are marginally better than existing players, than to draft for other positions where there is an absence of quality talent? In the end, The Rams lost Nsimba Webster, Josh Reynolds, Trishton Jackson, and J.J. Koski from the 2020 roster. We can only hope that the team adds either T. Jackson and/or J.J. Koski to the practice squad.