A word about Sammy Watkins...

[Elmgrovegnome]

Watkins benefitted greatly as a deep threat with Hopkins as his teammate at Clemson.

Woods is benefitting from Watkins being on the field. So it is a bit of a roll reversal.

So, it won’t be Watkins stepping up. He will still draw most of the attention. They will need Thomas and Reynolds to step up.

 

[-X-]

We have arguably the fastest receiver in the league.
The quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line.
That is all.

 

[Loyal]

We have arguably the fastest receiver in the league.
The quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line.
That is all.

Yeah!
~Tavon

 

[Memphis Ram]

Watkins? Probably need to get him involved early so chances are he'll do a better job of keeping his head in the game.
That's been said to be the case for quite a few WRs over the years.

One can be open and ignored just so many times before it starts to get to one.

 

[Gunslinger78]

Sammy is a good receiver, Goff is not gonna throw into double and triple coverage unless that coverage is beaten. The man can run some damn Deep Ins (You know, the route Tory and Isaac made famous). The plays are not designed to go to Sammy unless he is just beating the corner and safety super deep. They need to stop playing games and just dink and dunk to our all star receiving corps like brady does. Like case Keenum did to us, Because no one covers the flats in the NFL, especially in a 3 - 4 defense.

 

[Legatron4]

I like Sammy as a person.

But as an NFL WR, not so much. He lacks route running, instincts, and competitive fire to win contested balls.

He does have good hands and explosion.

I think they have targeted him over and over and he just is not reliable, so they have to target other guys to move the ball.

Kupp and Woods are way ahead of Watkins.

Having Woods down is a great time to find that third receiver between Cooper Thomas and Reynolds, one of which will replace Sammy in the offseason unless he completely turns it around.

I ain’t buying this. Sammy Watkins is an elite talent and showed in Buffalo what he can do. He’s healthier then he’s ever been. I don’t think our offense is a great fit for him. He needs 10 targets per game to really go off. Like a RB, he gets stronger throughout the game.

 

[DaveFan'51]

I think in order to get the passing game going this week they will have to immediately establish the run against a poor run defense THEN take their big shots.

Yep! This^^!! Establish the Run, then get some "Chunk plays" off of play-action!!

 

[Gunslinger78]

Also, you don't run the zone run vs a good run defense, vs a good run defense you block every one in the box except for the safety and let your running back wear that safety down so that when you run play action he is too tired to really cover anyone that effectively.

 

[RamBall]

I think Ds know the Rams want to get the ball to Sammy, so they do their best to take him away, which opens things up for the others. I want to see what a D does with Sammy, JR, and Mike Thomas on the field at the same time, add Everett at TE and Gurley in the backfield. I'm sure McVay can come up with something out of package especially against a single deep safety look.

 

[A.J. Hicks]

I think we have some young receivers that were just granted an opportunity to try and shine!

I also think Mcvay was just presented an opportunity to break away from the personnel grouping that he has been running so much. Rather than trotting the same groups out onto the field he is going to be forced to mix it up, in turn mixing up our play calling.

 

[nighttrain]

I think we have some young receivers that were just granted an opportunity to try and shine!

I also think Mcvay was just presented an opportunity to break away from the personnel grouping that he has been running so much. Rather than trotting the same groups out onto the field he is going to be forced to mix it up, in turn mixing up our play calling.

Woods out is not a good thing, but it will certainly give one of the backups more snaps, and a chance to shine
train

 

[Soul Surfer]

Why the sarcasm, OldSchool?

His little cousin got his turkey leg.

I'd be mad too.

 

[Sportsed]

Watkins has 24 catches on 38 targets-----tied for 4th on the team in targets with Higbee. Hoping Mcvay uses Sammy in Woods' role at least half the time. Sammy can still run the deep routes-----just not as often; let someone else run some of those "decoy" routes while throwing the ball to Sammy.

 

[Gunslinger78]

I don't understand why we can just have Tavon run those deep decoy routes. He gets less touches than Sammy anyway.

 

[“Turbo set!”]

The other day I read Watkins scouting report coming out of college.

Yea there were some positives but nothing that warranted him being drafted so high.

Granted he never had a quality quarterback throwing the ball to him in Buffalo but I am not sold on him.

 

[BadCompany]

Wouldn't this be the perfect game to...

... use Watkins as a decoy?

I mean think about it - you gotta figure the Saints view Watkins as the next man up, so they're probably going to scheme for him a bit more. If not a whole bunch more. I would guess their whole approach will be to stuff Gurley, and then force Goff to throw to a highly covered Watkins. Turn-over city, right?

So why not scheme the entire game plan around somebody else? Like Kupp, or maybe Austin? If that works they can come back big time to Watkins next week against the Cardinals. Then, with any luck Woods will be back for the Eagles game, and the Eagles won't have a clue what defense to present.

 

[Memphis Ram]

Just listened to Greg Cossell, of ESPN Matchup Show, on Sirius NFL Radio. And based upon his film study he confirms what most already know in that Watkins is getting open, but just isn't getting the ball.

Basically he said the offense has a lot of 3 by 1 WR sets and that the single side WR (Watkins) is often the 3rd or 4th read and Goff hasn't developed enough yet to always get there like Cousins did in Washington. Adam Caplan chimed in that when he talks to teams that have played the Rams they think they are managing him to where it's one read, two read, and then balls out and that he's not processing info quickly enough to get to the 4th and 5th reads like Wentz does yet. Both agreed it's not a knock against Goff, but that Wentz was more developed in a pro style offense coming out of college.

 

[-X-]

Both agreed it's not a knock against Goff, but that Wentz was more developed in a pro style offense coming out of college

Which makes me give just a little credence to what the previous staff was saying about Jared last year (that he'll play when he's ready). My guess is that they had timed him during practices with the defense applying pressure and he was taking too many virtual sacks. I don't think it had anything to do with his talents. Just his development into the scheme. Sure they could have changed the scheme to fit his stage of development, but that staff was too dogmatic to do anything like that, and they obviously didn't want to see him fail.

 

[-X-]

And about Watkins...
Why was he the 3rd or 4th read? Did they attribute that to his late arrival? Meaning he's behind the curve? Because talent-wise, he should be the 1st or 2nd read.

 

[Farr Be It]

We have arguably the fastest receiver in the league.
The quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line.
That is all.

So you’d run Tavon on more fly routes this week?