In each of the first 10 games of the season, Tutu Atwell played at least 67% of the snaps. He firmly entrenched himself as the No. 3 receiver behind Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, but his grip on that role is loosening by the week.
Against the Cardinals in Week 12, he played just 36% of the snaps, and he was on the field for only 39% of the plays on Sunday in the Rams’ win over the Browns. It’s no coincidence that Demarcus Robinson has played 60% and 59% of the snaps in those two games, taking opportunities away from Atwell as the No. 3 receiver.
Robinson took full advantage of his opportunities on Sunday, catching four passes for 55 yards and a touchdown, including a 30-yard reception on second-and-20. Atwell, meanwhile, had just one catch for 9 yards.
Sean McVay was asked about the balance between Atwell and Robinson in that No. 3 spot, and while he wants to keep both players involved, he also wanted to ride the hot hand with Robinson on Sunday.
“Yeah, it’s one of those deals that it’s kind of snap-by-snap case,” McVay said Monday. “Tutu has obviously done a really good job this year and one of the things that doesn’t go down on the stat sheet that I know you recognize, he ended up having another explosive it just didn’t count as a catch for him, but it counted for the Rams offense advance in the ball plus 40 yards down the field. And so, that was a big play. It was a great job by Matthew (Stafford) recognizing the look and being able to give him a chance and he ultimately drew the flag. I thought Demarcus did a great job. It was kind of one of those deals that he got hot, made a couple plays on the one drive, and it was important to be able to just kind of keep him in the flow of the game so he got some more snaps than Tutu, but we want to be able to have both of those guys involved.”
For the last two years, the Rams offense has gone through Kupp. He’s gotten most of the targets from Stafford, but things have changed this season with Nacua rising as a rookie and seeing a huge workload for a fifth-round pick.
Stafford is spreading the ball around more now than he has in recent years, getting other players involved beyond just Kupp – and that’s something McVay loves to see. He thinks the more receivers they can get the ball to, the better.
“As far as the snap counts, the targets, we want to try to get different guys involved, but there’s different reasons that we would have certain guys in certain spots,” he said. “But yesterday, I thought you saw Demarcus do a good job from that ‘X’ receiver position making a lot of plays where you could feel his range, his target size, and just his overall ability to separate and you can just see the playmaking ability where you kind of feel him is the best way that I can describe it. It’s like so important where you can really see he and Matthew are getting a good rapport with one another. The more that you play with guys, whether that be Tutu, whether that be Puka, whether that’s Cooper or now you add Demarcus Robinson into the mix, that’s been a good thing.”
Robinson is an experienced receiver who’s had past success with both the Chiefs and the Ravens, so it’s hardly surprising that he’s beginning to emerge as an option at wideout for the Rams. Whether he’ll keep seeing five targets a game is unclear, but he’s seemingly overtaken Atwell as the team’s No. 3 receiver for the time being.