Brian Allen has allowed the most sacks at the center position with 5

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thirteen28

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When he was drafted was not his choice. Harping on the player in this instance is ridiculous.
I’m harping on the decision to pick him over others that could have been taken. I want to be wrong (like I was when they took Isaac Bruce) but so far I’m not.
 

oldnotdead

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People struggle with him because they think there were better options in the draft at that time. I agree with those people.

Perhaps but hindsight is always 20/20. Obviously, the Rams felt he could fill a very important role, i.e. a deep threat out of the slot that DJax was to fill, and a returner specialist. He still might. Regardless it's what the FO felt was of greater importance. Since we don't know all that went into the decision, it's really pointless to continue to debate it.

The way the draft room works is that in each round they have a cluster of players, ranked in order of preference. We don't know if another player who was ranked higher than Tutu was off the board. In fact, we don't know where Tutu was ranked in the cluster.

The Rams didn't take a center because they knew they had one. To blame one player for the struggles last Sunday night is simply wrong. Go back and watch the OL and you will see it wasn't just Allen. Even Whitworth struggled as well as Edwards, Corbett and Havenstein. The problem lay with Stafford holding the ball too long trying to press it downfield and McVay not adjusting. There is no evidence to even suggest Humphries would have made any difference at all. The Titans sacked Mahomes a far more mobile QB than Stafford 4 times. That would suggest that he wouldn't have made a difference.

Tutu is a Ram, like it or not. As such I for one will be hopeful and supportive of him as a player. He hasn't proved a bust in any means. All he's shown is a rookie struggling to adjust to the NFL. Next year is a different matter entirely. Then you would expect him to show improvement.
 

den-the-coach

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Tutu is a Ram, like it or not. As such I for one will be hopeful and supportive of him as a player. He hasn't proved a bust in any means. All he's shown is a rookie struggling to adjust to the NFL. Next year is a different matter entirely. Then you would expect him to show improvement.

Plus he'll have a year of strength & conditioning under coach Justin Lovett and that should aid him well. IMO, Atwell is not a punt returner, but he is a good route runner with game changing speed, hopefully, with an added 10 pounds, he can handle being a receiver and hold up better, plus offer quite a bit in the deep passing game,
 

FarNorth

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Plus he'll have a year of strength & conditioning under coach Justin Lovett and that should aid him well. IMO, Atwell is not a punt returner, but he is a good route runner with game changing speed, hopefully, with an added 10 pounds, he can handle being a receiver and hold up better, plus offer quite a bit in the deep passing game,
Imo it's a mistake to judge Atwell as a receiver by Atwell as a punt returner, a position he never played before. I thought Atwell showed some potential as a receiver in training camp, especially considering he wasn't getting thrown open or deep from a dynamic passing qb.
 

CGI_Ram

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Tutu is a Ram, like it or not. As such I for one will be hopeful and supportive of him as a player. He hasn't proved a bust in any means. All he's shown is a rookie struggling to adjust to the NFL. Next year is a different matter entirely. Then you would expect him to show improvement.

Plus he'll have a year of strength & conditioning under coach Justin Lovett and that should aid him well. IMO, Atwell is not a punt returner, but he is a good route runner with game changing speed, hopefully, with an added 10 pounds, he can handle being a receiver and hold up better, plus offer quite a bit in the deep passing game,

Imo it's a mistake to judge Atwell as a receiver by Atwell as a punt returner, a position he never played before. I thought Atwell showed some potential as a receiver in training camp, especially considering he wasn't getting thrown open or deep from a dynamic passing qb.

I am with you guys. Lets see him at WR next year. See what THAT looks like.
 

Florida_Ram

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Plus he'll have a year of strength & conditioning under coach Justin Lovett and that should aid him well. IMO, Atwell is not a punt returner, but he is a good route runner with game changing speed, hopefully, with an added 10 pounds, he can handle being a receiver and hold up better, plus offer quite a bit in the deep passing game,

I guess coach den. I get your punt returner logic not defining him as a receiver but the Rams draft brass ignored the fact that he's a straight line runner with no jukes or wiggle in his game for a little man his size.

His game film at Louisville clearly showed he was not a punt return specialist. I doubt he's in the league in 2023 but I've been wrong before.

I wasn't as down on the pick as many others were but he never took the Ram by the horns and then he got injured like many predicted.

Tutu will enter his sophomore pro season in 2022 and he might step up his game. Early indications are he will be one trick pony and have an impact game every once in a great while.

I had hope for him with his catch rate in the preseason even though he never flashed big play ability.

Still early, but on the surface it's a lot like the Trung Canidate selection. I get that Trung was a first round pick but Tutu was the first selection in the Rams 2021 draft and they went way out of the box when the didn't need to. :crying:
 
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Florida_Ram

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The Rams will likely not have their starting center Brian Allen and their second best WR is now out for the season.

OBJ will get on the field with a limited knowledge of the playbook. This could be a boom or bust result.

If the Rams lose to the 49ers Monday night it will be their 5th straight loss to SF. It will also probably cement them as the #5 seed in the postseason.

I'm thinking Stafford will have to tell OBJ right before the break in the huddle what route he's supposed to run and what the distance is. The problem is, if Stafford calls an audible, will OBJ know what it means and what his new assignment is?
 
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blackbart

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Perhaps but hindsight is always 20/20. Obviously, the Rams felt he could fill a very important role, i.e. a deep threat out of the slot that DJax was to fill, and a returner specialist. He still might. Regardless it's what the FO felt was of greater importance. Since we don't know all that went into the decision, it's really pointless to continue to debate it.

The way the draft room works is that in each round they have a cluster of players, ranked in order of preference. We don't know if another player who was ranked higher than Tutu was off the board. In fact, we don't know where Tutu was ranked in the cluster.

The Rams didn't take a center because they knew they had one. To blame one player for the struggles last Sunday night is simply wrong. Go back and watch the OL and you will see it wasn't just Allen. Even Whitworth struggled as well as Edwards, Corbett and Havenstein. The problem lay with Stafford holding the ball too long trying to press it downfield and McVay not adjusting. There is no evidence to even suggest Humphries would have made any difference at all. The Titans sacked Mahomes a far more mobile QB than Stafford 4 times. That would suggest that he wouldn't have made a difference.

Tutu is a Ram, like it or not. As such I for one will be hopeful and supportive of him as a player. He hasn't proved a bust in any means. All he's shown is a rookie struggling to adjust to the NFL. Next year is a different matter entirely. Then you would expect him to show improvement.
Hasn’t proved not to be a bust either. In fact, it’s leaning a hell of a lot more that direction than in a positive direction.

Just how many players are there in the NFL at 160lbs? Why doesn’t every team have a couple of them?
 

El Chapo Jr

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As much of a surprise as Allen was been, I said from day 1 that we fucked up not drafting Creed Humphrey.
 

Elmgrovegnome

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I guess coach den. I get your punt returner logic not defining him as a receiver but the Rams draft brass ignored the fact that he's a straight line runner with no jukes or wiggle in his game for a little man his size.

His game film at Louisville clearly showed he was not a punt return specialist. I doubt he's in the league in 2023 but I've been wrong before.

I wasn't as down on the pick as many others were but he never took the Ram by the horns and then he got injured like many predicted.

Tutu will enter his sophomore pro season in 2022 and he might step up his game. Early indications are he will be one trick pony and have an impact game every once in a great while.

I had hope for him with his catch rate in the preseason even though he never flashed big play ability.

Still early, but on the surface it's a lot like the Trung Canidate selection. I get that Trung was a first round pick but Tutu was the first selection in the Rams 2021 draft and they went way out of the box when the didn't need to. :crying:
A small guy with straight line speed can struggle because it just takes one bump to knock him off of his route and slow him down. Then he needs to accelerate again. Tavon had a similar problem with players getting physical with him within five yards of the LOS. With 3 seconds or less to throw that can eliminate the weapon.
 

thirteen28

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In his defense, he is playing hurt and did so against two very physical Dlines. But that does beg the question why they aren't letting him heal up and starting Shelton. And it certainly makes the case for "should have drafted Creed when we had a chance."
 

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Good article on the Ringer today discussing some of what needs to be done and how adjustments made for Stafford are starting to backfire and that they need to do more of the stuff the oline is actually constructed for. They need to get more play action and get the interior dline moving side to side a little so they can't just tee off on our IOL.
 

PhillyRam

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Good article on the Ringer today discussing some of what needs to be done and how adjustments made for Stafford are starting to backfire and that they need to do more of the stuff the oline is actually constructed for. They need to get more play action and get the interior dline moving side to side a little so they can't just tee off on our IOL.
Said this last yr. People kept saying that McVay didn't do a lot of straight drop backs because he didn't trust Goff. Maybe he didn't, but seemed to me he also didn't trust his OL.

Early on this yr the OL held up on such plays. Gave Stafford plenty of time, but with Allen nicked, and when going up against better DL's, you can see that those 7 step drops are not the answer.

He has to run this offense similarly to how he ran it with Goff... It worked well with him. Then considering the better tools Stafford has, you can tweak it a bit to maximize his ability.

You just can't turn this into Air Coryell at this point. We don't have those kind of weapons or an OL... Plus those Air Coryell teams didnt win jack. And even the GSOT almost didnt get to the SB because they got beat up a bit and almost list to Sean King.

He needs to add a physical run gane with play action, and then this offense would be tough to stop.

And the frustrating thing is they have the pieces to do that for the most part. Maybe a bigger back would help next yr, but Howell has size and could get some touches here and there as well this yr.
 

Tano

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It appears now all of us were right, not sure why, but Atwell really didn't offer much IMO.
I have a feeling that pick will go down in history as the worst Rams pick ever (even worse than Greg Robinson and the other 2nd pick because at least those were picks of need and just selected the wrong player at the position).

WR was not a need pick but a luxury pick once we had Jackson (even though that has turned out to be a waste as well).