Major part of Rams 2024 offense is out for the next month or more

The LA Rams are counting on Matthew Stafford to do what he has done throughout his NFL career. Win with a depleted offense. But is that fair to ask of him? It's obvious that the LA Rams did nothing to help Stafford and an injury-riddled offensive line in the first two games of the season. The team maintained its 11-personnel package throughout the storm at both offensive tackles, forced to lean heavily into the Rams depth chart just to field healthy offensive tackles.

But the team left them stranded on an island. There were no two tight end formations to help them out. The belief (I assume) was that Stafford would simply react more quickly, shorten the football field, and allow defenders to crowd the box, shut down the run, and force the team into a short passing game that becomes far too predictable.

And yet, unless the team makes wholesale philosophical changes to their offensive strategy, the team is almost certainly facing more of the same in Week 3.

The pattern of losing key offensive weapons began as long ago as the Wild Card Round of the 2024 NFL Playoffs, when TE Tyler Higbee was tackled low and suffered an ACL injury.:

That began the avalanche. You see, without Higbee on the football field to attract 5-9 targets, the Rams overloaded WR Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. Nacua, already suffering from a knee injury, aggravated his knee and was placed on IR.

With no option to throw to either Higbee or Nacua, the offense ran almost exclusively through veteran WR Cooper Kupp. As Rams fans have come to see each year, that overload on Kupp resulted in 27 targets, 18 receptions, and yes, another injury. Kupp has suffered an ankle sprain, and even without being added to IR, the team projects Kupp to be out an extended period of time.

The Rams lopsided offensive strategy has betrayed the team once again. The Rams offense targeted Cooper Kupp 27 times. That is nearly more than the next three receivers. And Kupp was injured in Week 2. Despite their absence, the Rams have relied on Kupp and Nacua to produce 34 percent of their receiver yards.

Cooper Kupp has put up more yards in less than two games than the entire Rams rushing attack.

I understand that, in the heat of battle, the Rams work the horses that work. And when he is healthy, the Rams can count on elite production out of Cooper Kupp, and to a lesser extent, out of Puka Nacua and Tyler Higbee.

But thanks to the team's insistence of focusing on those players, the other offensive weapons did not get enough work. Now, the team has no alternative but to entrust other players who have been only minor contributors to step up in Week 3.

This is an all too familiar pattern. The Rams lucked out by discovering that rookie WR Puka Nacua was able to carry the offense in 2023. But now, the team must depend on another as of yet undiscovered offensive talent to handle the load.

The Rams justify burning through veteran starters by rationalizing that game scenarios require targeting their best players. But that is short-sighted, as that intensity that the defense is well-prepared to anticipate leaves the offense with fewer weapons as the season progresses.

With the same familiarity index, you can expect the team to run Kyren Williams, and pass heavily to WRs Demarcus Robinson and Tutu Atwell. Let's see how accurate this prediction is for Week 3. And if it's close, how easy is it for defensive players to guess what the offense intends to do?

It's the ole 'pay me now or pay me later,' paradox. The Rams must direct their offense through unfamiliar and untested routes now. And yet, had the team done so in Weeks 1 and 2, the need to do so now might never have happened.

As always, thanks for reading.