You seem to be forgetting a very major point.
When Kupp and Nacua were out last year and Atwell and Robinson were starting, the O-Line was completely banged up and we were playing backups, shuffling bodies in and out and playing guys out of position.
You seem to forget that Stafford was having to throw under duress on every dropback, and there was no Oline continuity at all. Adjustments were made, and routes were shortened to get the ball out as quickly as possible.
In spite of that Atwell had really good numbers in those circumstances, far superior to Robinson's, while drawing the tougher db assignments.
Also, saying that Atwell drew little interest in free agency is off the mark. What was your source for that? The Rams moved to sign him immediately at the opening of free agency, and $10million is a very decent salary for a nonstarting player.
By contrast, Robinson and a host of other free agent passcatchers are still on the market. The market for Robinson is rumored to be in the $3million range, though he does have a pending legal case hanging over him.
Also, your reference to Atwell's size is irritating, it would be nice if people would get over the talk about his size, really just get over it. He won't be growing any more
Judge him, like any player by his performance.
You can make a case that from a pure receiving perspective, Atwell offered more than Kupp last year and certainly opened up the field better, and scared defences a lot more.
Our passing offence last year was very one-dimensional - essentially it was the Puka show, and it speaks to Puka's dominance that he was basically unstoppable despite drawing double teams, overloads, and most of the focus of the defence.
Well I can predict with complete confidence that the following will occur in 2025:
1. Tutu will have some good games and some games he disappears.
2. His fans will complain that he is not utilized enough.
3. He will move on after the season to another team.
But maybe I'm wrong. And I'd love to be wrong on point 1. I'd love to see him put up a huge year, but to expect a leopard to change his spots is not a winning mindset. So we'll see what happens but believe it or not I always root for him.
I have a problem with your analysis, and it's the same problem I have with other posters who have arrived at their conclusions about Atwell based upon his limited stats, his size, or the belief that he can't play because the coaches put him lower on the receiver depth charts - tacit implication that they assessed him as inferior to a number of other Rams receivers.
Posters have mentioned Atwell's lack of productivity relative to his draft position, which I find absolutely ridiculous because you can only catch the ball when it's thrown to you, and you can only catch the ball when you're on the field, you can only produce when you're given the opportunity, and you can't throw the ball to yourself when you're open on a deep go route for an easy touchdown.
I cannot believe that there are posters comparing Atwell unfavorably to Van Jefferson.
Atwell is faster, has much better hands, can catch the ball over the middle, and doesn't have Jefferson's timidity/fear when going after the ball.
Jefferson played small and intimidated, lacked presence out there, and there was just no growth in his game.
Trust me, Atwell wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes on the open market. Other teams saw what McVay didn't, and I'm sure McVay and Snead got wind of the buzz from agents, other GM's and coaches, and they reassessed what Atwell could do for the Rams.
There was nothing in the way that Atwell was used (or not used) in the playoffs which suggested that he'd be back with the Rams, so I think the evaluations of others may have had something to do with the Rams' sudden U-turn on Atwell, because he was as good as gone.
I do not understand what the Rams coaches do not see in Atwell, and they have the benefit of film, so there's no excuse.
To be fair coaches are human and I've coached multiple sports at high levels for most of my life and I can assure you that you can get caught up in personal likes and dislikes, preconceived judgements and other factors that can cloud your opinion of a player's performance or value.
McVay gave Noteboom a second contract in spite of the fact that he was a nightmare lineman. Longtime Rams fans may remember offensive lineman Jason Smith drafted 2nd overall out of Baylor. He - like Noteboom - was given ample playing time by his coaches despite specializing in getting his quarterback killed. Yet their coaches continually trotted these guys out there.
Coaches make mistakes, and they have favourites, and prejudices. Sometimes they like a player's personality, their humour, intelligence, how they treat people, their families. Coaches are human, they make mistakes.
The Rams didn't see it, but other teams clearly did. That is that Atwell is an impact player who can give you instant offence, and really that's not that common in the NFL folks.
