2nd Rd / Pick #46 - Terrance Ferguson, TE, Oregon

[Merlin]

Stafford likes big targets over the middle, down the seams, etc. This dude has elite size, wingspan, and hops. Rams can sit him down vs zone, body guys over the middle in man. His best ball is hopefully a year or two ahead, but damn it feels good to have a big smooth bastard in this TE room and hopefully we'll see some redzone usage his rook season with him and Higs out there mismatching defenders.

Now we gotta wait for camp.

 

[Dodgersrf]

What does using a TE look like to you?

We use a TE on almost every single offensive play.

The TE isn’t a big part of our passing game.

It seems every year, McVay seems to feature the TE more in our passing offense.
Then that game plan disappears next season.

Like I said.
I don’t really care about 12 personnel or even planning our passing game with a TE as long as we are protecting Stanford and can throw it down field.

From the reports that I’ve seen, Ferguson needs work as a blocker.
So if he isn’t going to be part of our passing game, then why draft him.

I like watching Higbee when he’s part of our passing game, but even before his injury, he seemed to be an afterthought in our game plan.

I just don’t want to see Gerald Everett 2.0

 

[Merlin]

The TE isn’t a big part of our passing game.

It seems every year, McVay seems to feature the TE more in our passing offense.
Then that game plan disappears next season.

Like I said.
I don’t really care about 12 personnel or even planning our passing game with a TE as long as we are protecting Stanford and can throw it down field.

From the reports that I’ve seen, Ferguson needs work as a blocker.
So if he isn’t going to be part of our passing game, then why draft him.

I like watching Higbee when he’s part of our passing game, but even before his injury, he seemed to be an afterthought in our game plan.

I just don’t want to see Gerald Everett 2.0

The problem has been the quality of options. The TE room has been Higs and the funky bunch. So as a result we run 11 higher percentage than anyone.

McVay deserves criticism, so does Les, on their inability to fill that room with at least two good options. They've whiffed their asses off on TEs. But if and when that room actually has two options that are good enough to put that third WR on the bench, we're gonna see 12 sets.

So basically McVay has been his own worst enemy here. And I think he realizes that. So hopefully they hit on this kid and we see that happen as he starts to mature.

By the way the best TEs will show you something in year one. They'll at least show some pass game threat and ability to mismatch. So I fully expect that, and hope for it, from Ferguson.

 

[Dodgersrf]

The problem has been the quality of options. The TE room has been Higs and the funky bunch. So as a result we run 11 higher percentage than anyone.

McVay deserves criticism, so does Les, on their inability to fill that room with at least two good options. They've whiffed their asses off on TEs. But if and when that room actually has two options that are good enough to put that third WR on the bench, we're gonna see 12 sets.

So basically McVay has been his own worst enemy here. And I think he realizes that. So hopefully they hit on this kid and we see that happen as he starts to mature.

By the way the best TEs will show you something in year one. They'll at least show some pass game threat and ability to mismatch. So I fully expect that, and hope for it, from Ferguson.

I think coaches love the idea of having a guy like Kelce in their offense.
They then seem to struggle using them.
When you have the option of a faster WR or receiving TE, they seem to prefer the wr.

 

[Merlin]

I think coaches love the idea of having a guy like Kelce in their offense.
They then seem to struggle using them.
When you have the option of a faster WR or receiving TE, they seem to prefer the wr.

The problem here is you are judging them based on having a guy like Kelce when they have not had anyone even remotely like Kelce.

 

[Gandalf]

The senior bowl stuff makes me happy… also hearing the Ducks stole a lot of Rams concepts makes it sound like an easier transition.

Imagine him in motion and doing that blast between the guard and tackle that Puka does… to block or get into a route.

I’m intrigued. Who knows? Maybe he’s Laporta?

I watched some film yesterday and noticed Oregon runs a lot of plays the Rams use. Ferguson runs a lot of the same routes that Kupp ran for us.

 

[Dodgersrf]

The problem here is you are judging them based on having a guy like Kelce when they have not had anyone even remotely like Kelce.

I understand that as well.
Gerald Everett isn’t a bad TE, but we spent a premium pick on him the 1st year McVay was here.
We also drafted a FB, didn’t we?

All I know, is that McVay has been very reluctant to utilize the TE heavily in our passing game.
Higs can catch and is effective.
Same goes for Everett.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have taken a TE.
I’m just saying, maybe, just maybe, we could have grabbed one later and used the pick on secondary.

 

[OldSchool]

I watched some film yesterday and noticed Oregon runs a lot of plays the Rams use. Ferguson runs a lot of the same routes that Kupp ran for us.

In his intro presser he mentions that very thing. Think I linked it a couple pages back and he talks about Oregon stole some things from the Rams so that should help him a little bit with the playbook.

 

[OldSchool]

I understand that as well.
Gerald Everett isn’t a bad TE, but we spent a premium pick on him the 1st year McVay was here.
We also drafted a FB, didn’t we?

All I know, is that McVay has been very reluctant to utilize the TE heavily in our passing game.
Higs can catch and is effective.
Same goes for Everett.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have taken a TE.
I’m just saying, maybe, just maybe, we could have grabbed one later and used the pick on secondary.

Everett was smaller and much less of a route runner and came from a small school. Ferguson is much more of a pro ready prospect than Everett could have ever hoped to be. You're doing our guy a major disservice to compare him to Everett.

 

[Gandalf]

In his intro presser he mentions that very thing. Think I linked it a couple pages back and he talks about Oregon stole some things from the Rams so that should help him a little bit with the playbook.

I watched some clips yesterday and saw right away he looked a lot like Kupp. I hope he comes up big for us. I have high hopes.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Everett was smaller and much less of a route runner and came from a small school. Ferguson is much more of a pro ready prospect than Everett could have ever hoped to be. You're doing our guy a major disservice to compare him to Everett.

I’m not counting him out or hoping he fails at all.

I like watching TEs truck guys down field.

What I’m saying is….we haven’t seen a TE take a large role in our passing game under McVay, except in short stints at the end of each season.

I hope Ferguson excels and becomes a fan favorite.

I love McSnead, but sometimes we draft toys that sit in the toy box.
Atwell, for example.

 

[Merlin]

I understand that as well.
Gerald Everett isn’t a bad TE, but we spent a premium pick on him the 1st year McVay was here.
We also drafted a FB, didn’t we?

All I know, is that McVay has been very reluctant to utilize the TE heavily in our passing game.
Higs can catch and is effective.
Same goes for Everett.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t have taken a TE.
I’m just saying, maybe, just maybe, we could have grabbed one later and used the pick on secondary.

I get what you're saying. It's just that Higs is not a great pass game weapon. You can call 10 pass plays with him as an early read and he won't get a high volume of throws his way. He's more a guy you gotta scheme open.

Everett wasn't any good, small and his athleticism didn't translate, poor instincts and all that. None of these guys they've brought in have been any good in terms of pass game threat.

McVay is a play caller who trusts certain players in certain situations. He just doesn't trust his TEs and it's hard to knock him on that. Thing is the fact he can't trust them is his fault because he's drafted the position poorly.

Higs is fine as an inline TE. Where you can get him schemed open or get him releases based on selling blocks at the snap. But to go 12 you need someone out there with him who is better than a WR as a pass game option. And that's what we have lacked.

What is interesting is maybe this year that changes. Because Ferguson is a big mover you gotta be careful with in coverage. And Allen is going into year three and has good hands plus decent size. So maybe in total we see an uptick in 12 sets, and in the media they'll blab about how McVay has had a philosophical change. But the reality, if it happens, will be that he finally has weapons that enable those sets.

 

[OldSchool]

I’m not counting him out or hoping he fails at all.

I like watching TEs truck guys down field.

What I’m saying is….we haven’t seen a TE take a large role in our passing game under McVay, except in short stints at the end of each season.

I hope Ferguson excels and becomes a fan favorite.

I love McSnead, but sometimes we draft toys that sit in the toy box.
Atwell, for example.

Bolded I absolutely agree with. My only point in responding is Everett is not a comp at all for Ferguson that's doing him wrong.

 

[Dodgersrf]

Bolded I absolutely agree with. My only point in responding is Everett is not a comp at all for Ferguson that's doing him wrong.

My knock isn’t on Ferguson, though.
I’m just questioning management on this one.

I’m not even unhappy about the pick.
I’m not super excited about it either.
I’m just a bit skeptical.

My current view is, wait and see and hope he’s a stud that pans out and helps our offense.

 

[JonRam99]

I agree it's really hard to evaluate what McVay would do with a good TE when he hasn't had the personnel to run TE options.
Gerald Everett was not a good case study. Can't wait to see this kid in horns.

 

[Gandalf]

I’m not counting him out or hoping he fails at all.

I like watching TEs truck guys down field.

What I’m saying is….we haven’t seen a TE take a large role in our passing game under McVay, except in short stints at the end of each season.

I hope Ferguson excels and becomes a fan favorite.

I love McSnead, but sometimes we draft toys that sit in the toy box.
Atwell, for example

He seems like a lot better fit for our offense that Tutu was. Hopefully he is a valuable player for our team.

 

[RamFanWA]

At least if he ends up being terrible we can call him Turd Ferguson

Can we have more than one?
In Washington State, we already have that wrapped up, with our governor...

 

[FrantikRam]

I’m not counting him out or hoping he fails at all.

I like watching TEs truck guys down field.

What I’m saying is….we haven’t seen a TE take a large role in our passing game under McVay, except in short stints at the end of each season.

I hope Ferguson excels and becomes a fan favorite.

I love McSnead, but sometimes we draft toys that sit in the toy box.
Atwell, for example.

Here's how I look at it....and this is probably an overly positive way of seeing it, I will acknowledge that...

Our history of second round weapon selections looks pretty bad on paper. You won't see me arguing that they had good NFL careers.

But in terms of plans, it's interesting to me because the players did either positively impact the game - or outright win us some games. When Kupp was hurt in 2023 to start the season, Puka shined but Atwell also played well. Last year we don't beat the Niners in week three without Tutu. Without a deep threat (and Jeffersons 800 yards, I don't know that Kupp has the year he had in 2021, we win 12 games and ultimately the Super Bowl.

Without Akers, I don't know that we win enough games down the stretch in 2020 to make the playoffs and win a playoff game.

I do think this case is different - we clearly went Ferguson, and even if we add a WR, that's only four WRs we are going to be comfortable with on game days (barring a vet signing or trade) - that seems to point to more two TE sets to balance things out

 

[ScotsRam]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io1l3hgY9q4&ab_channel=LosAngelesRams

This is an excellent interview. Pulling for this kid.

 

[Classic Rams]

At least if he ends up being terrible we can call him Turd Ferguson

Or when he runs over a defender we can say Ferguson left a Turd.