Can the LA Rams offense boast 4 premium WRs in 2022?

The LA Rams offense was the perfect landing spot for the likes of free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. The LA Rams boast a pass-centric offense, have an elite-armed quarterback named Matthew Stafford, and were eager to add Odell Beckham Jr. to the offensive arsenal. Of course, it certainly accelerated his timetable when veteran WR Robert Woods fell to injury. Just days after signing with the team, OBJ was forced into duty on the football field.

Now, it appears that Odell Beckham Jr. may be a hotly sought-after wide receiver in the 2022 NFL Free Agency market. So the question is, can the LA Rams offense even hope to boast an arsenal of WRs that includes Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, and Odell Beckham Jr.? Well, if history is any indication? Probably not.

One football, four sets of hands?

The Rams offense is such that there is plenty of work, but the workload definitely falls upon the haves rather than the have nots.  Over the course of the past five seasons, the LA Rams offense has typically thrown the football in a rather evenly distributed fashion to the two top receivers. The frequency to the third receiving option runs about 67 percent of the volume of the top option. The next two receiving options end up about 50 percent of the targets of the top two.

While the sample size is relatively small, the arrival of quarterback Matthew Stafford seems to have changed that distribution. Now, the top target (a.k.a. Cooper Kupp) was targeted at about 150 percent of a normal season amount. To compensate, the next two receivers were targeted about 75 percent of a standard (120 targets) season. Finally, the fourth and fifth receivers were targeted about 50 percent of the standard number of targets.

Rams receivers return to regularly scheduled programing

The LA Rams ‘core’ receiving group was, is, and will be Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, and Van Jefferson. Even as the unexpected availability of veteran wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. was miraculously timed to help out the team this year, Does he stand a realistic chance of ‘bumping’ one of the core players? The Rams had a temporary spot for a veteran in this offense in DeSean Jackson, and that role, while productive, did not come close to Jackson’s expectations for the workload.

Meanwhile, the Rams will be getting Woods, Tutu Atwell, and Jacob Harris back next season, all of whom will be looking for some work. The team also has TE Tyler Higbee, Kendall Blanton, and the enigmatic Brycen Hopkins coming back as well. There is only so much work in this offense for a receiver to take on.

I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade. If the team and player communicate clearly and effectively going forward, there could be a way to game manage enough work for a quartet of passing targets. But to do so, the team would need to shift some of the TE receiving work to a WR, and I’m not sure even that is feasible.

Pragmatic perspective

In the end, the LA Rams may not bring back Odell Beckham Jr. in 2022, even if OBJ wants to do so. The fourth productive WR in the LA Rams offense in 2021 was Odell Beckham Jr., and he caught 27 of 45 passes for 305 yards and five touchdowns. But he essentially took over for Robert Woods.  The next WR in the chart was DeSean Jackson, who caught seven of 15 passes for 221 yards and one touchdown in seven games. That simply is not enough work to justify crowding the receiver room next year.

I’d love to see the Rams extend Odell Beckham Jr. He expands the danger of the offense, and he has proven to be a good fit at a time when the team truly needed him to synch up quickly.

To do that, they would need to part with WR Tutu Atwell for starters, and I cannot see that happening. It is more likely that the team would allow OBJ to sign on for a significant contract with another team, in the hopes of generating an awarded compensatory 2023 draft pick from the experience.