Tutu Atwell is the fastest receiver the Rams have, and if he can stay healthy, he can be their downfield threat the way DeSean Jackson was at the start of last season. He still hasn’t caught a pass in the regular season but the team clearly views him as someone who can contribute on offense.
Liam Coen and Sean McVay planned to get him involved last week against the Bills but Buffalo’s defensive scheme forced the Rams to abandon ship. The Bills played a style of defense that took away the deep part of the field, forcing the Rams to check down to underneath receivers.
Not to mention, the offensive line couldn’t protect Matthew Stafford, making it incredibly difficult to push the ball down the field because he didn’t have enough time to.
“There was a pretty solid plan for him going into the Buffalo game,” Coen said of Atwell. “Then you see the structures that they’re playing, the front and how it was affecting some things. You end up getting off of some of the things that make him successful or what we’ve really been able to see throughout training camp of getting him down the field vertically. ‘Hey, now how do we give him some different angles of the cut? How do we get him some intermediate throws, things like that can maybe just really diversify his route tree.’ Because everything doesn’t have to be down the field vertical that we’re sitting on it and waiting, being able to give him some different opps in terms of the route tree. But also be able to attack the coverages when we get them to be able to get those down the field opps.”
Atwell was targeted once in the seven snaps he played, but he dropped a pass from Stafford on the outside. He’s still young and developing as a wideout, but by all accounts, he had a great training camp and was regularly making big plays down the field.
That connection with Stafford will come eventually, hopefully on Sunday against a Falcons defense that doesn’t have the same level of talent that the Bills do. The Rams view Atwell as someone who can take the top off a defense, it just requires time for those plays to develop.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Coen said of whether Atwell can develop into a player who breaks the shell of a defense. “Talking about breaking the shell, when you get into a game like Buffalo, for us when you’re sitting there, we’re drop back passing and we’re struggling to protect a little bit. So as a playcaller and as an offensive staff, you’re like, ‘Well, how can we then just take shots off play action?’
