Fans of the Los Angeles Rams were certainly level-headed when they saw Tutu Atwell was a healthy scratch on Monday night versus the San Francisco 49ers. Amid all of the chaos surrounding Atwell on social media once he was announced inactive, Sean McVay explained on Tuesday what led to the second-year wideout being a healthy scratch in Week 4.
“Really just for the overall (special) teams and just kind of the overall approach. Could be very different this week,” McVay said. “We’ve had more moving parts than we’ve ever had since I’ve been here and going to the early parts of the season. That’s why it was really just exclusive to yesterday, not anything that (WR) TuTu didn’t do, and we’ll see what that means for his status this week.”
Considering that the Rams are pretty thin at the wide receiver position right now, it’s not a good sign for Atwell to be a healthy scratch. The second-round pick out of Louisville in last year’s draft has yet to record his first reception in the NFL in his first two seasons and Brandon Powell has emerged as the preferred returner on special teams.
At the same time, the Rams have involved Powell more in the offense to begin the season, which continues to point toward the distrust in Atwell in his sophomore season. There was some hype surrounding Atwell in the offseason, but it’s failed to come into fruition to begin the season despite the lack of receiving options outside of Cooper Kupp.
McVay iterated that a lot of factors led to the 22-year-old wide receiver being inactive in Week 4. And even with McVay saying that he could be active for certain weeks, the decision to take Atwell in the second round of the 2021 NFL draft continues to look like a questionable move.
