It's not because he can't. As I've said in other posts, he's the second best tracker of long balls of any WR we have and third best hands overall, Puka and Higbee being ahead of him, but barely. He showed up when both Adams and Nacua were injured.
McVay wants big WRs who can block...essentially, of the 4 potential pass catchers, he'd like 2 in line TEs and 2 move TEs. Puka is used often like a move TE and even Adams has been asked to stick is face in and block. I know obviously that Puka and Adams and sometimes the rest of the WRs line up and run routes like WRs, but the whole point behind how McVay likes to fool defenses is that each play looks like the last play and gives no obvious clues as to run or pass or where the pass is going. Not always the case, but that's the design philosophy.
McVay can't ask Atwell to do that and Josh Downs wouldn't fare any better. Now...BTJ??? If they could rehab him would be ideal, but that's the question. We've already taken someone from the Jags who needed rehab, though that was more attitude as he was proven as a player in Jalen Ramsey. Still, could our coaching and culture work for BTJ? He makes sense in how McVay runs his offense.
This is gonna be a bit backwards, but McVay runs his offense like someone who buys an SUV with all the off-roading capabilities and never takes it even on a gravel path. He has a tool that can be tremendously useful, but it's not how he actually uses it no matter now much use he might get from it if he made changes.
So, unless the Big WR is also super fast, we aren't getting speed because McVay won't use the fast little guys. He just won't use them...no matter how much I scream at the TV when the DBs are sitting on the short routes.
