7 Rams must defy the odds and win a 2024 roster spot, even Stetson Bennett?

IV: WR Tutu Atwell

It is crystal clear that veteran wide receiver Tutu Atwell has the potential to be a very dangerous weapon in the LA Rams offense, but only if he has offensive snaps and targets. Therein lies the rub. In three seasons with the team, Atwell has 1005 offensive snaps, 102 targets, and made 57 catches. His career catch rate is just 55.9 percent. Can he do better than that? I fear he must.

Once he makes the catch, Atwell easily showcases how dangerous he truly is. His 57 catches have translated into 781 yards, 37 first downs, and four touchdowns. His longest catch of 62 yards proves that he can be a scoring threat at almost any spot on the football field.

Oddly enough, when the Rams had to face starting the 2023 NFL season without their main receiving target Cooper Kupp, the team turned to wide receivers Puka Nacua and Tutu Atwell. And in the first two games, Atwell seemed up to the challenge. Atwell hauled in 13 of 17 targets (a 76.5 percent completion rate) for 196 yards. The problem was that he simply could not sustain that level of work.

After the flurry of work in those first two games, Atwell would go on to catch just 26 of 50 passes thrown his way the rest of the season. That is just slightly better than the odds of flipping a coin. If those same number of passes had been thrown to Demarcus Robinson, the Rams would have had 639 yards of offense, and seven touchdowns, rather than 483 yards and three touchdowns. And that is the problem.

Atwell's catch rate has to improve significantly in 2024, Ideally, he needs to haul in two of every three passes thrown his way. Since the team has the option to target a more trustworthy target in Demarcus Robinson, Atwell does not offer the team the best option on the football team. Unless he improves, he could be seen as an unnecessary duplicacantion on the roster.