LA Rams get serious about special teams in 2024 with this shocking player

When the LA Rams drafted speedstar wide receiver Tutu Atwell, one of the publicly shared roles for the rookie was to use is elusiveness and blazing speed in special teams as a return specialist. But his speed and elusiveness never truly seemed to kick into his on-field production. as he returned 10 punts for 54 yards and five kickoffs for 87 yards. The coaching staff had seen enough, and he was not used in a return specialist role since his rookie season.

Ah, but things are changing for the LA Rams in 2024.

For starters. Tutu Atwell is no longer that wide-eyed rookie who is bursting with energy and eager to get noticed by the coaching staff. Atwell knows the team, knows his coaches, knows his teammates, and most of all, knows his role and responsibilities.

Including a return to a return specialist role in 2024?

At the 21:50 mark in the embedded video (see below) The Athletic's Jourdan Rodrigue posed the question to Atwell to gauge his expected involvement in the team's return team this season:

And with a smile, he replied:

"Yeah, no doubt. I am going to be back there this year. We’re going to see some Tutu at kick return. When I found out about the new rule, I was like, Man, dang. Knowing you got guys coming down full speed but they’ve got to wait until I catch the ball, it’s going to be dangerous. I will take a chance at that this year.

We have been practicing it, trying to get a feeling of it, and I had a couple of reps, other guys had a couple reps. And it looked good, so we are going to see. Hopefully we practice it more in training camp and we’re going to see how it goes from there."

Rams WR Tutu Atwell

The new kickoff rules are going to open the window of opportunity for Tutu Atwell to refill the return role.

The challenge in using Tutu Atwell in the past was the fact that at 5-foot-9 and weighing just 165 pounds, Atwell is not really built to withstand many shots of a guy catching a kickoff and taking shots by gunners at full speed. But as he explained in the discussion, cover teams cannot get off their marks until after he catches the football.

Advantage: Atwell.

Of course, he will not be anointed into the role. The Rams signed RB Boston Scott intending to deploy the seasoned veteran return specialist from the Philadelphia Eagles in a return role. But it's not decided just yet. This could be wide-open competition.

While Boston Scott makes great sense as a return specialist, landing the starting KR/PR role does force the Rams to consider dropping promising young RB Zach Evans from the 53-man roster to clear space. If the team can get a multi-functional role of KR/PR/WR from Tutu Atwell, that would certainly be welcome news for roster cuts.

It looks as though there is far more competition at the Rams training camp than originally suspected. Grab your popcorn, folks. Business is picking up.

Thanks for reading.