3 Rams who definitely won't be back after the team extends WR Tutu Atwell

The Los Angeles Rams front office has been busy, and the 2025 NFL Free Agency market hasn't even opened yet. Forget rumors and innuendos, the team has wasted no time putting plans for the 2025 NFL season success into rapid action. The first order of business for the team was satisfying starting quarterback Matthew Stafford. With that accomplished, the Rams have:

• Extended LT Alaric Jackson
• Tendered ERFA C Dylan McMahon
• Waived CB Tre Tomlinson
• Extended WR Tutu Atwell

With each successive action, the image of what the Rams intend to do in 2025 is beginning to form. The Rams are committed to recharging the batteries on an offense that have run dead. While we can tout the Rams offense as inspired, electric, potent, dangerous, or high-powered, the numbers in recent years simply have not supported those claims.

And yet, the image that is forming is actually quite promising. The Rams suggested in the offseason that this team needs to be more explosive on offense. The team's ability to score has faded like the vibrant colors of lawn furniture fades in sunshine. I don't believe that it's a lack of talent. Rather, I have been concerned for some time that the team's offensive innovation has been predictable and patterned.

Despite an abundance of tight end talent, a shortage of experienced wide receivers, and backup offensive tackles, the team insisted on ignoring 12-personnel options repeatedly. While there is always the rational argument about trying to win with an unexpected strategy, the team was ideally suited for two-tight-end formations last season. Worse yet, the Rams had the perfect wide receiver to use in 12-personnel formations in Tutu Atwell.

Could the latest extension of Tutu Atwell mean that the Rams are finally considering a bit more 12-personnel formations in the offense on game day? Well, Atwell is back and the Rams are spending more than expected on his extension. So something is up. How much did Atwell cost the team in 2025 to come back? A one-year contact for $10 million:

So why would the Rams invest so much in a seldom-used receiver? Ah yes. It makes a bit more sense if you consider how the team wants to construct the offense for 2025. The Rams are building around Puka Nacua. Tutu Atwell is a perfect compliment to Nacua, as he offers a completely different set of skills and roles to threaten opposing defenses:

Many have scoffed at the Rams swift wide receiver. But he has had to bite his tongue and endure a very limited role in an offense that only tapped him when a teammate was injured. Atwell offers far more than injury relief. A contract of that magnitude, much like the contract to sign TE Colby Parkinson in 2024, hints that the Rams have a more significant role in mind for Tutu Atwell for 2025. So what does this mean for the team's other wide receiver free agents? Let's investigate:

(3) - Tyler Johnson

While the Rams roster could still use a versatile productive wide receiver in the offense, the team never seemed to find the right combination to unlock Tyler Johnson's potential in this offense. Standing 6-foot-1 and weighing 208 pounds should have made Johnson a solid resource for a team that loves players at that height and weight.

While Tyler Johnson saw 371 offensive snaps in 2025, he seldom was targeted. He caught 26 of 41 targets in 2024 for 291 receiving yards and one touchdown. While limited in use, he 63.4 percent catch rate was solid for such a seldom used receiver. He actually started two games, neither was the Week 18 game against the Seattle Seahawks with backups while starters rested.

He was targeted seven times in three separate games. In those games, he hauled in five catches for 79 yards against the Detroit Lions, four catches for 57 yards against the Las Vegas Raiders, and four catches for 35 yards and one touchdown against the Seattle Seahawks. While I do not rule him out completely, if the Rams extend him it will need to be on a team-friendly contract. But with Tutu Atwell's extension, the door for his return in 2025 closed a little bit more.

(2) - Demarcus Robinson

I would love to see the Rams extend Demarcus Robinson, as he seems to flourish in a limited role in the Rams offense. Robinson not only flourishes in the Rams offense, but he seems to authentically love playing for the team. And if his story ended there, I would fully expect the team to be typing up his extension contract as you read this.

But there is still the matter of Robinson's 2024 arrest on suspicion of DUI. At some point in time, the NFL will review the matter, and disciplinary actions are still on the table. What does that mean? Based n the comments from Rams GM Les Snead, it likely means no extension is forthcoming.

Whenever someone comments: 'We appreciate what he's done,' that's a way of saying 'So long,' in more polite terms. In two seasons with the Rams, Demarcus Robinson has caught 57 of 103 passes for 876 yards and a phenomenal 11 touchdowns. That's a lot of positive production to replace. But with the potential for NFL disciplinary action looming, that may simply be the challenge the Rams are willing to take on.

(1) - Cooper Kupp

Many Rams fans are stuck in the perceived oxymoron of holding a position of trading away veteran contributor Cooper Kupp, while extending a much younger and seldom-used wide receiver Tut Atwell. Does Atwell's return pave the way for Cooper Kupp to sneak back to the Rams for 2025? While he circled the mountain a bit in his response, Rams GM Les Snead stated that is the least likely scenario for the 2025 Rams offseason.

So why would the Rams be willing to give Atwell a significant pay raise, while holding the line on cutting ties with Cooper Kupp? Unlike fans, the Rams front office does not have the luxury of basing sentiment on what was. Instead, the Rams dedicate their data analytics department specifically to determine when is the 'right time,' to allow aging players to seek their fortunes elsewhere. Like it or not, the time to part ways with Cooper Kupp is now.

Summary

There are many Rams fans who are already buying into the narrative that this is an overpay. When did I hear that before? Ah yes, 'overpay' was the term used to decry the team's willingness to trade up in the 2024 NFL Draft and add DT Braden Fiske with the 39th overall pick. What was does not define what will be. If that was the case, how did the LA Rams plummet from Super Bowl LVI champions to a 5-12 record in 2022?

Things change.

I compared the overall return on investment between WR Cooper Kupp and Tutu Atwell from 2022 through 2024. What does that look like?

Here's what I learned:

• Cooper Kupp's catches in 2022-2024 earned him over $200k per catch
  Tutu Atwell's catches in 2022-2024 earned him under $36.9k per catch
• Cooper Kupp earned $17.8k for each receiving yard from 2022-2024 while Tutu Atwell earned just $2.7k for each receiving yard over the same time frame.
• Cooper Kupp earned nearly $2.4 million for each touchdown scored from 2022-2024, while Tutu Atwell earned just $900k for each touchdown scored over the same time span.

Who is the better player? I'm not really sure. Kupp was the featured wide receiver, yes. But would Tutu Atwell put up similar numbers with 293 targets? Let's see: He projects at 177 catches for 2,400 receiving yards, and seven touchdowns. He would have caught fewer passes and scored fewer times. But his receiving yards with the same number of targets would be more than Kupp over the past three seasons.

Pff tells an optimistic tale as well:

The Rams are investing more money into Tutu Atwell because the team has plans for a more significant role this season. No, I'm not suggesting that he will outperform Cooper Kupp. I applied simple mathematical calculations to determine if his extension makes sense while the team distances itself from Kupp. And upon inspection, it does.

Don't judge a personnel move by the upfront costs. The Rams have invested in veteran WR Tutu Atwell for good reason. The team intends on fielding a more explosive offense in 2025. Without wide recdeivers Van Jefferson or DeSean Jackson, the team must rely upon Tutu Atwell to supply the TNT to make this offense go 'boom' on game day.

You may not be excited or even optimistic over this extension. But don't dig in your heels and hate it just yet. Let the team form the roster. Let the offense showcase what it plans to do in 2025. If the Rams manage to draft a top tight end in the 2025 NFL Draft, then $10 million to Atwell to stretch the field will seem very cheap.

I really like this extension, as much as I enjoyed the team drafting Braden Fiske. We all know how that turned out.

Thanks for reading.

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