When Sean McVay took over as head coach of the Rams in 2017, Todd Gurley was a huge part of the passing game. That year, he caught 64 passes for 788 yards and six touchdowns, seeing 87 passes come his way from Jared Goff.
In each of the following two seasons, his numbers as a receiver tailed off, dropping to 59 catches and 580 yards in 2018 and even further to only 31 receptions for 207 yards last season. In total last year, Rams running backs were targeted 61 times on Jared Goff’s 626 pass attempts – or 9.7%. It’s still early in the 2020 season, but through two games, Goff has targeted his running backs eight times on 58 attempts (13.8%).
It’s not a huge uptick in targets, but Sean McVay has committed to involving his running backs in the passing game and it’s working well. Combined, they’ve caught six passes for 75 yards, an average of 12.5 yards per reception.
“We’ve talked about it a lot, we want to be able to use all five eligibles. Fortunately, all of our backs have those skills to be able to contribute not only as runners, but also as pass catchers,” McVay told reporters Monday. “That’s a positive thing for us. We want to make them defend everybody, use those guys to our advantage and when we’re able to stay ahead of the chains and be in efficient down-and-distances, that kind of opens everything up. So, a long way to go. But, I think the first two weeks have been reflective of some things that we’ve wanted to focus on and being able to get a bunch of carries off is good because it means you’re able to control some of the possession as well, which I think has been good for our team.”
It’s not as if running backs are being targeted just on dump-off and as Goff’s fifth option. Instead, McVay has drawn up plays specifically for his tailbacks, such as screens and wheel routes.
One play, in particular, stood out from Sunday’s win. Darrell Henderson beat his man on a route down the field for a 28-yard gain, and Goff dropped the pass in the bucket perfectly for his running back.
Henderson started split out as a receiver, too, which allowed the play to develop more quickly.
McVay highlighted that as an example of how plays like that one can put the defense in a bind. He had to do some self-reflecting in order to make this commitment to involving the running backs more as receivers.
“I think the pivot is you’ve got to really study yourself and be honest with some of the things that we didn’t do a good enough job,” he said. “I think that’s clearly one of the things that I didn’t do a good enough job with, is getting those guys involved in the pass game. There’s really nowhere else to look, but I’ve got to do a better job and that’s something that we focused on as a staff and really those backs aren’t limited in anything that they can do. You can get them involved in the screens, they can catch your check-downs. I mean, you see Darrell Henderson catch a rail route on third-and-9 yesterday, makes a great catch over his shoulder. I think it’s just the more that you can present that defenses have to prepare for the better that, we’ll have a chance to kind of make it more difficult on them.”
We’ll see if the Rams keep up this trend of throwing to their running backs more as the season goes on, but it’s paid dividends thus far. Through two weeks, Rams running backs are averaging 12.5 yards per reception and only two of their targets have fallen incomplete.
The Rams don’t lack receiving targets outside, but it’s important to get the running backs involved, too.
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