Pick your two players who break out this season : One on offense and one on defense.

[LesBaker]

Cooper Kupp- not a break out performance per say but I think his stats will surprise some.

He's already a huge surprise LOL.

A slow 3rd round pick.

And he copped 869 yards which led the team (as a rookie!!!) on 62 catches which is 14 YPC.

If he surprises us more than that I may pee my pants!

The WR corps is LOADED.

 

[Hollywood Ram]

My two are Everett and Ebakum.

Longacre and Woods

 

[fanotodd]

Ebukam - that raw athleticism gets put to use after his first off-season.

Kupp - built that rapport with Goff, a bit more passing to ease the work load off Gurley, more RZ targets.

Those were the 2 picks I was most excited about going into the season last year. Throw in JJ3, and those are some talented guys taken AFTER the 2nd round.

 

[RamFan503]

One has to wonder if the TE is less of a point of emphasis in McVay's scheme now. In WASH he used them more. Maybe he doesn't need to as much with the WR's and Gurley playing so well in the passing game. They got a lot fewer targets than what TE's got in WASH under McVay as OC.

I have thought this myself. People keep talking about how the TE is so important to McVay’s system. It may just be that he rather knows how to use what he’s got and will optimize that. I haven’t heard him talk about it. But he may value blocking TEs greater with this many true skill players at other positions.

 

[Akrasian]

I'd be more inclined to agree that he likes TEs because that's what he had in DC - except that his first draft pick as a HC was a TE, not an OL or a WR or anything else.

 

[LesBaker]

I have thought this myself. People keep talking about how the TE is so important to McVay’s system. It may just be that he rather knows how to use what he’s got and will optimize that. I haven’t heard him talk about it. But he may value blocking TEs greater with this many true skill players at other positions.

He is a great play designer, like Martz was at one time, so it's easy to imagine that he adapts his design to the players, which he did last year IMO.

In WASH he didn't run jet sweeps loads of times. He didn't send a WR on a go pattern to take a DB and S out of the way. He used those plays last year though. I don't recall WASH using lots and lots of motion pre snap like we saw last year either. Maybe they did but I didn't notice it in highlights.

Chess players, and I love that game, play differently depending on what pieces are available, depending on what they have to use, and I see McVay as that kind of play designer/playcaller.

Strategically flexible.

Something Martz never was.

Martz tried to bend each game to his style, system and play call. McVay seems to bend his style, system and play call to the game at hand.