How Cooper Kupp's return could create far-reaching impacts to the Rams roster

WR Demarcus Robinson

The LA Rams did not even play veteran WR Demarcus Robinson until the second half of the 2023 NFL season. But when they did, he proved to be the missing piece to make the entire offense purr like a high-performance racing engine. In fact, Robinson had a four-game streak of scoring a touchdown, something that the team needs desperately in 2024.

But Robinson proved to be a worthy and dependable receiver in 2023. This season, the veteran wide receiver has struggled to sustain his historic catch rate. Despite a 63.5 percent catch rate, Robinson is struggling in 2024 with a 52.2 percent catch rate this season. But he has one touchdown, the only score besides that of Cooper Kupp and Kyren Williams from the offense.

This offense tends to route offensive snaps and targets to the hottest WRs on the roster. Right now, I'm not sure the team views Robinson in the 'hot hand' category. So his workload may diminish with Kupp's return.

WR Tyler Johnson/Xavier Smith

The two wide receivers most likely to be impacted by the healthy return of WR Cooper Kupp are Tyler Johnson and Xavier Smith. For Smith, his streak of elevations from the team's practice squad to play on game day has likely ended. For WR Tyler Johnson, he will almost certainly take the place of Cooper Kupp on the team's weekly inactive list.

That may not seem like a big deal for fans. But Tyler Johnson has caught 10 of 15 passes for 119 yards this season, He has some potential to grow his role in this offense. That is likely over.

Likewise, Xavier Smith has proven to be very dangerous for the team in his punt returner role, averaging over 18 yards in three punt returns. But the team needs to find him a roster spot to continue to use Smith on special team's, and finding a free roster spot is highly unlikely as the team must navigate creating slots for healthy players who are returning to the active roster.

While the team may not be rebuilding this season, the team has many characteristics of a young team trying to rebuild. There is an overwhelming abundance of young saplings on this roster that could grow into huge and sturdy oak trees someday.

But the Rams have their biggest shade tree, Cooper Kupp, back. And the canopy of his share of snaps and targets will cast shade far and wide over the rest of the roster.

As always, thanks for reading.

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