Will TE/WR Jacob Harris be ready for the LA Rams 2022 offense?

From sizzle to fizzle

When the Rams practiced in shorts and tee-shirts, the guy’s natural track-star abilities were the talk of training camp. But after the pads went on, and he was playing in preseason games against other NFL reserves and hopefuls, a bit of his luster wore off. While he was on the receiving end of passes thrown by third-string quarterback Bryce Perkins, he was just five out of 13 for 45 yards and one touchdown in three games.

That was not a very impressive debut for the Rams.

While he did see the football field in mop-up duty in two early-season blowouts against the New York Giants and Houston Texans respectively, he was primarily a special teamer. The LA Rams used his incredible speed to help on cover teams until he was injured in Week 9 in a loss against the Tennessee  Titans.

Jacob Harris suffers a minor setback

From what we saw out of the young man in preseason games, he was never going beat out the likes of veteran receivers Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, DeSean Jackson, or even Van Jefferson. But there was a glimmer of hope that he may be used in red zone packages, or that over time he might work his way into the offense as the team worked to manage the workloads of starters.

It would have been nice for the young Harris to have gotten work during the season and in the postseason with the Rams offense. As the season goes, the best ability in the NFL is availability, and that is simply not how it worked out for Harris in his rookie season. Oh, but how all of the pieces were there.

The LA Rams had just added veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. Over the course of the season, the Rams well-stocked receiver room emptied due to attrition (DeSean Jackson was released) and injury (Robert Woods ACL injury ended his season early, TE Johnny Mundt injured and out for the season as well). The stage was set for Harris to showcase his athletics skills as either a blazing fast receiver off the line of scrimmage or an incredibly tall dangerous red-zone target who would be next-to-impossible to stop from scoring a touchdown.