5 unstoppable offensive stars who must carry the LA Rams into the postseason

When it comes to the LA Rams, do you think of special teams, defense, or offense? If you are like most Rams fans, you are likely to think of the offense first. Well, you are not alone, as the team seems to put the offense first as well. In terms of the roster construction, it's the offense that boasts the lion's share of veterans, of All-Pro players, and of Pro Bowlers.

And if you visit overthecap.com's breakdown on positional spending, you will discover that is where the team spends their money. In fact, only the Cleveland Browns are spending more on offense than the LA Rams in 2024. But it hasn't always been that way. When Sean McVay took over as the head coach of the LA Rams in 2017, the team was skewed to spending more on the defensive side of the football. But has spending translated into offensive efficiency?

To test that theory, let's examine a data table for the Rams' offense since 2017, and see if there is any correlation between the amount spent on the offensive side of the football, and the offense's ability to gain yards and or score points:
(Please note that to see all fields in the data table, you may need to slide the bar beneath the table to the right and left)

So what conclusions can we draw from the data table (above)? Well, the first thing that jumps out off the page is the fact that the Rams front office has never invested as heavily into the offense as it has in 2024. So we are in brand new territory. But rising above that initial challenge, there does not seem to be any correlation between the amount of money spent on the offense and the performance of that offense.

So is all hope of a dominating offense lost? Quite the contrary.

The same offense that was seventh in yards gained and eighth in points scored has gotten a significant infusion of cash into real time quality upgrades and depth in the offensive line, tight end, and running back positions. You can even make a point that both quarterback and wide receiver rooms have been upgraded with higher quality and number of depth players too.

So which players on the Rams roster on the offensive side of the football need to help carry the team this year? Here are our top five players:

A tight end not named Tyler Higbee

While veteran tight end Tyler Higbee has been the cornerstone of production at the tight end position for the Rams, his injury incurred in the 2024 NFL Playoffs was so serious that the team has already prepared to start the 2024 NFL season with him on IR. So, taking that one step further, there should not be any lofty expectations of his return and putting up career-high numbers. The team will need to get production from somewhere, or someone, else.

The first candidate who comes to mind is second-year tight end Davis Allen. Allen was selected in the 2023 NFL Draft in Round 5 with the 175th overall pick, just two spots ahead of rookie sensation, WR Puka Nacua. While Allen did not have Nacua's impact on the team, he did as much as he could possibly do with his limited targets.

Allen stands 6-foot-6 and weighs 251 pounds. He not only showcased a superb ability to haul in passes thrown his way, but he has a nasty mean streak of bully-blocking on the offensive line. As a receiver, he only failed to catch one of 13 passes thrown his way, netting the team 123 yards, eight first downs, and a touchdown. If the team increases his workload, nothing suggests that he will backslide. In fact, he has the passion and mindset that could carry him to 500+ yards as a receiver if given the opportunity.

What is perhaps the most promising aspect of Allen's potential is how he carried himself in postseason competition. When Higbee fell to injury, Allen was promoted to the tight end position, and held his own quite admirably. He caught both passess thrown his was in the second half, and he was an effective and energetic blocker.

That type of performance suggests that Allen has matured into a player who is ready to start for the team. But, he will have competition.

Parkinson will give still competition in training camp

His competition this year is 6-foot-7 265-pound tight end Colby Parkinson, a free agent signed to a three-year contract and who is clearly earmarked as the frontrunner to take over for Tyler Higbee when the time comes. For now, he is learning the team's offensive playbook, and trying to make a positive impression on the coaching staff through OTAs and mini-camp.

So far, it's working.

Parkinson was a reliable backup tight end in the Seattle Seahawks offense, catching 25 of 34 passes for two touchdowns in each of the last two seasons. Like the Rams roster this year, he was log-jammed as the third of three tight end options, and that limited his workload and opportunities.

The Rams believe that Parkinson could be a key to improving their Red Zone offensive effectiveness, and I believe that they are correct. Parkinson is not only a skyscraper, but his size makes him an ideal piledriver at blocking in short-yardage situations. The thing is that Parkinson boasted a 74 percent completion rate with the Seahawks on a relatively light workload. Will he maintain or improve upon that catch rate if he is targeted more frequently in the Rams offense?

That is what the team is counting on. I believe that Parkinson does have significant upside in the Red Zone. But I believe in the overall offensive scheme, he may struggle to outperform Davis Allen.

WR Cooper Kupp

If veteran wide receiver Cooper Kupp is 100 percent healthy, he is a dominating wide receiver in the NFL. He is sneaky agile, is very physical, can catch a ball thrown near his vicinity, and has those powerful strides that churn out plenty of yards after the catch. But the question is: Can he stay healthy in 2024?

Both Cooper Kupp and the coaching staff believe that he can. Reports about Kupp's prolonged struggles with injuries in 2023 stack on top of his known injury shortened season in 2022. Now, after two seasons hampered by mishap, the team is eager to see a fully healthy Kupp back on the football field and producing big gains for the offense.

The thing is, despite two injury riddles seasons, Kupp continued to flirt with 1000 receiving yard seasons. He put up 812 yards and six touchdowns in just nine games in 2022. And he put up 737 yards and five touchdowns in just 12 games in 2022. Had he been able to suit up for all 17 games in either season, he would have broken 1000 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. That would have been a huge performance for this team.

So why not believe that he is capable of putting up those types of numbers in 2024? After all, in the past three seasons, he has averaged over 1,150 yards and nine touchdowns per year. That type of contribution in this offense in this season is the type of production that not only will help the team repeat an appearance in the NFL Playoffs, but makes the team unstoppable once the team gets there.

In the team's run to claim the Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LVI, Kupp caught 33 of 42 targets for 478 yards and six touchdowns in just four games. The team not only needs Kupp to stay healthy through 2024, but arrive at the post-season in good enough shape to put up a similar performance.

RB Kyren Willaims

While we can hope for a healthy Cooper Kupp in 2024, the same can be said for third-year running back Kyren Willams. Williams played in just 12 games in 2023, and still ended up shocking the NFL by rushing for 1,144 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. Imagine what those numbers might have been had he been healthy in 17 games?

The offense really seems to operate on a completely different level when both Kyren Williams and Matthew Stafford are healthy, a fact that ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes cited when touting the Rams offense as one of the NFL's Top-10 offenses in 2024. But what about Williams's style of running unlocks the offensive overdrive? Let's break it down by the numbers:

3: He optimizes his blocks

Perhaps it's due to his size at 5-foot-9. Maybe it's due to his sleek greyhound-like build of just 194 pounds. But whatever the cause, Kyren Williams is a master ninja of stealth, hiding in the shadows of his much larger offensive lineman teammates, and racing to daylight at the last possible moment. He can slink, elude, and then scurry which makes him such a dangerous running back. He does not try to do it all with speed alone. Instead, he slips into the rocking chair slot of his convoy, letting his powerful peers create a crack in the line of scrimmage, and then slips right on through for big gains.

2: He gains yards in chunks quickly

Another factoid about Kyren Williams is the fact that while he is just beginning to excel in his NFL career, his 5.0 yards per carry average in 2023 is the best rushing average of any running back since the team hired HC Sean McVay in 2017. Not even the masterful RB Todd Gurley matched that performance. So how well did he do in the NFL Playoffs? He still averaged 4.7 yards per carry.

While you might expect defenses to prepare more effectively to negate a repeat performance in 2024, keep in mind that the team has not stood idly by in the offseason. The team has reconfigured the offensive line to be even more dominant in 2024, with improvements expected from more experience under the belt of both center Steve Avila and left tackle Alaric Jackson.

!: He forces defenses to think run first, opening full range of passing plays

What we witnessed over time is that defensive coordinators have mastered ways to defend this offense. Sean McVay-inspired offenses continue to be cloned and permeate the NFL, allowing defensive strategies to develop over trial and error. Defenses have learned better ways to thwart a passing game that can explode with as many as five eligibles running routes on any given play. They simply pin their ears back and attack the quarterback.

With Kyren Williams in the backfield, the Rams offense hopes that is the case. With a wave of the hand and a loud check out of the original play, the offense can convert a vulnerable pass play that is doomed to fail against a huge blitz, and turn it into a quick hitter for a big gain that punishes over eager pass rushers.

WR Puka Nacua

it's tough to reconcile placing burden on the second season after rookie WR set an NFL All-Time Rookie Receiving record, but such is the NFL. It's about what the player can do in the present tense, and that translates into Puka Nacua needs to bring his A game in 2024.

It seems both ironic and somewhat humiliating to assess how incredibly effective Nacua's rookie season was, and then step back and expect similar or better results in 2024, but such is the growth of young NFL players. Of course, can the team expect similar results that were almost entirely dependant on the fact that the young man was targeted 160 times in his debut season?

To sustain that level of performance, the team will either need to:

• Target Puka Nacua at least 160 times in 2024
• Improve his catch rate of 65.6 percent
• Increase his average 14.2 yards per reception

Even if Nacua does backslide a bit in 2024, whether by sharing the workload, a more even distribution between pass and run, or simply the fact that his gets dinged up this season, the season is not ruined. The presence of Puka Nacua on the football field simply needs to be that dependable 1000-yard type receiver that the team hopes to see from Cooper Kupp this season.

The Rams offense has been blessed with multiple 1000 yard receivers in the past, and 2024 certainly seems to be an alignment of those same traits that unlocks a pair of dominating receivers once more.

QB Matthew Stafford

The master of the Rams offense, and the field general for HC Sean McVay, is veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford. The team made significant investments in the offensive line in 2023, and the results were a refreshed Stafford who earned Pro Bowl honors for only the second time in his career.

Since the initial investment into the offensive line seemed to yield such positive results, the front office doubled down and made significant investments into the offensive line this year as well.

In 2023, the Rams passing offense, powered by rookie Puka Nacua, was the 10th ranked passing offense in terms of yards gained. But this offense fell to 15th ranked in terms of passing touchdowns, 18th in terms of interceptions thrown, but rose to sixth-ranked in terms of quarterback sacks allowed.

Even as LA Rams starting quarterback Matthew Stafford earned Pro Bowl honors for only the second time in 2023, the offense has to improve upon those 2023 statistics. I believe realistic goals for 2024 are to improve quarterback sacks allowed to no more than 30, shave interceptions to no greater than 12, to increase passing touchdowns to 30 or greater,

Is that doable in 2024? In 2021, the Rams allowed just 31 quarterback sacks, threw 18 interceptions, but threw for 41 touchdowns. So yes, it can be done. Perhaps the wildcard variable to achieving such optimistic targets in 2024 resides in establishing a consistently effective ground assault. If the team can move the football on the ground, the offense can dictate the terms of when and how they pass.

It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a team to win a Super Bowl. To win Super Bowl LIX, the Rams will need increible efforts from these five offensive stars, and from the entire roster.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read the article.