[RAMMAN76]

Cameron DaSilva
November 26, 2024 7:52 am PT

Now more than ever, running backs are integral parts of an offense’s passing attack. Coaches have found that throwing to their backs can essentially be an extension of the ground game, whether it’s on swing passes or designed screens.

It’s an easy way to get the ball into the hands of one of your best playmakers without forcing him to take a pounding from defensive tackles by running it between the tackles. Plus, when a running back is in the open field against a cornerback, he can use his physicality to pick up yards after contact by breaking tackles.

As popular as running back targets have become, no one told Sean McVay about this trend. For whatever reason, he refuses to use his running backs as receivers and it’s a very simple element that’s missing from the Los Angeles Rams’ offense.

According to Fantasy Pros, the Rams have by far the lowest running back target rate of any team at just 9.6% this season. Every other team targets their running backs at least 13.1% of the time. By comparison, the Rams target their wide receivers at a league-high rate of 75.5%, and their tight end target share of 14.9% if the fourth-lowest in football.

Translation: The Rams are throwing to their wide receivers 3/4 of the time.

It’s not like this is a one-year thing for the Rams, either. Here are their running back target rates since 2017 and where they rank each year.

2017: 19.8% (21st)
2018: 17.8% (23rd)
2019: 10% (32nd)
2020: 12.6% (30th)
2021: 12.6% (32nd)
2022: 12.2% (31st)
2023: 12.4% (32nd)
2024: 9.6% (32nd)

You’ll notice there was a steep drop-off from 2018 to 2019, which is when Todd Gurley went from being an All-Pro to looking like a shell of himself due to a knee injury. Once Gurley fell off, the Rams stopped throwing to their running backs.

It’s not because they haven’t had good receiving backs, either.

Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson Jr. were both very capable pass-catchers out of the backfield, as is Kyren Williams. McVay and Les Snead even admitted during the draft that Blake Corum’s receiving skills caught their eyes during Michigan’s pro day, coming away impressed by how comfortable he looked catching passes.

So what gives? Why do the Rams use their running backs as receivers less than any other team in the NFL just about every year? This season has been particularly bad in that department, with their 9.6% running back target rate being the lowest in the NFL since the 49ers had just an 8.1% RB target rate in 2014.

It’s not because Williams has had issues catching the ball. Sure, he has one drop, but of the 29 passes thrown to him this season, he’s caught 25 of them. That’s a solid 86.2% catch rate, showing just how easy those completions are for Stafford.

The biggest reason for Williams’ lack of targets is his heavy usage in pass protection. According to Pro Football Focus, he has 121 pass-blocking snaps this season. That’s 41 more than the next-closest running back, Javonte Williams.

Williams is only averaging 5.4 yards per reception, but the problem is, his average depth of target is 1.3 yards behind the line of scrimmage. That’s the ninth-lowest rate of any running back with at least 14 targets, per PFF.

Kyle Juszczyk (5.3), Christian McCaffrey (3.9) and Jordan Mason (3.4) rank first, second and third among tailbacks in average depth of target this season, showing how Kyle Shanahan utilizes his running backs on actual routes beyond the line of scrimmage, creating mismatches with slower linebackers who can’t cover the backs.

Even if McVay doesn’t want to send Williams out on choice or angle routes, he can call a screen or two every once in a while. That would’ve been particularly useful against the Eagles on Sunday night when Philadelphia’s pass rushers were pinning their ears back and getting after Stafford consistently.

The best counter to a blitz or strong pass rush is a screen pass to the running back, keeping the defense honest. Yet, the Rams threw zero passes to Williams for the second straight week, and Corum also didn’t see a single target.

It’s a small sample size, but Corum’s four receptions this season have gone for 7 yards, 7 yards, 8 yards and 9 yards. Most of those have been check-downs, too, but imagine what he could do in the open field on a screen pass with a convoy of blockers in front of him.

For an offense that’s sputtering, particularly on third down, it might be time to change things up and try something new. Throws to Williams and Corum can lead to easy completions, keeping the offense on schedule on first and second down.

[69RamFan]

Because in McVay's 11 PS,
He has the best trio WR in the league,
then we can include our TEs.
if you look at those stats,
It's not like he is not using it,
It's mostly used for, if everyone is covered,
then we go to our last option in the flat outlet.
plus, our RB help's out to protect from blitzing.

Plus, we upgraded into a power OL instead of a zone OL,
So, with that type of OL, we have more protection to look downfield.

I have no qualms being last in the league for not passing it to our RBs.

[ramsman34]

While all that is true 69, the OP is spot on. And, the screen game is gone. He needs to involve the backs in the pass game to give defenses more to think about and as an obvious outlet against pass rushes out suspect OL can’t handle. It’s just dumb to not have that in the scheme and game plane to some degree. And frankly, look no further than the redzone and scoring failures. Need more options and more for defenses to have to scheme against.

[69RamFan]

While all that is true 69, the OP is spot on. And, the screen game is gone. He needs to involve the backs in the pass game to give defenses more to think about and as an obvious outlet against pass rushes out suspect OL can’t handle. It’s just dumb to not have that in the scheme and game plane to some degree. And frankly, look no further than the redzone and scoring failures. Need more options and more for defenses to have to scheme against.

The screen game is not gone,
McVay is just using it with his WR in Kupp & Puka.

As far as the red zone,
I've seen plays that our RB goes out in the red zone.
It's just that Stafford is looking for Kupp or Puka first.
You have to acknowledge, in how the defense is playing,
and what Stafford is seeing, and it's his call, as far in the passing game.

[T3rry]

Screen game, jet sweeps, WR run plays.
Pretty much all non-existent in this offense.
There's really no excuse.

McVay apparently thinks perfect execution every play is the answer and expects his guys to be flawless on each play. It's ridiculous. At least give your guys a fighting chance and throw some wrinkles in the mix instead of expecting perfect execution for the first downsl and RedZone conversions play in and play out

Those are professional NFL players on the OTHER side of the ball too, Sean. Christ.... if WE can see that something is an obvious run or pass play, I'm pretty sure the defense can too and PERFECT EXECUTION isn't enough

[69RamFan]

Just to add,

1st half, eagles blitz 3x in other words rushing 5 men. and got one sack out of that blitz.
The other 2/sacks was from rushing 4.

Second half, eagles blitz 5x, in other words rushing 5 men and once 6-man rush.
But got their 2/sack in the second half off a 4-man rush.

18 rush att, 36 pass att for a total of 54 plays

Out of the 5 sacks, one came on a blitz,
the other four, was based off a four-man rush.

So, based off this article, he tried to say,
to get your best RB player to get more yardage after catching the pass.
Well both Kupp and Puka have a high ranking of yards after the catch.

It's not like the eagles blitz all the time; their percentage was low on the blitz,
So, to say, they need to use more screen plays, but they mostly only rushed with four
So, this blogger doesn't know what the hell he is talking about.

It just came down to, we got beat in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

[T3rry]

^^^ Give me a break, dude. I understand its easy to blame it on personnel or lack thereof, but there are ways to alleviate some of that pressure.

When the defense only has to worry about defending 4 different plays, their job gets a lot easier. No spy needed on Stafford since the guy won't leave the pocket, so now you're just relying on 2 or 3 players to win a 1-on-1 matchup. The TEs and RB are just blockers on pass plays, so that means Puka, Coop or DR/Tutu need to win for a play to be successful.
That is, if the ball isn't tipped at the LOS, or Staff doesn't get sacked because the play takes too long to develop.

Mix up the looks, mix up the play calls and I bet we have better success on 3rd down and red zone. Or we can just keep running the same 5 plays every game and hoping and wishing we can OUT EXECUTE the opposition every time.

[69RamFan]

^^^ Give me a break, dude. I understand its easy to blame it on personnel or lack thereof, but there are ways to alleviate some of that pressure.

When the defense only has to worry about defending 4 different plays, their job gets a lot easier. No spy needed on Stafford since the guy won't leave the pocket, so now you're just relying on 2 or 3 players to win a 1-on-1 matchup. The TEs and RB are just blockers on pass plays, so that means Puka, Coop or DR/Tutu need to win for a play to be successful.
That is, if the ball isn't tipped at the LOS, or Staff doesn't get sacked because the play takes too long to develop.

Mix up the looks, mix up the play calls and I bet we have better success on 3rd down and red zone. Or we can just keep running the same 5 plays every game and hoping and wishing we can OUT EXECUTE the opposition every time.

I don't know what game you were watching,

the first three qtrs, we were moving the ball on the offense,
what hurt us was the fumble by Williams that took a possible 7 points away from us,
and a missed FG, that's 10 pts.

the OL did not protect Stafford, he got sack four times on non-blitz, rushing only 4.
and it wasn't because of Stafford holding the ball too long,

Our oline gave up 5/sack & 11/QB hits,
but Stafford still completed 66% of his passes with a QB rating of 104.

We just got our asses kicked by the OL and the DL, period.

To add, we didn't covert on 3rd down, 0 for 8, that also hurt us.

On defense we couldn't stop the run, our DL was getting overpowered in the front 7.

[ramsman34]

The screen game is not gone,
McVay is just using it with his WR in Kupp & Puka.

As far as the red zone,
I've seen plays that our RB goes out in the red zone.
It's just that Stafford is looking for Kupp or Puka first.
You have to acknowledge, in how the defense is playing,
and what Stafford is seeing, and it's his call, as far in the passing game.

Even the smoke, bubble, and slip screens have barely been called. He called ONE slip screen today. Result. Puka Nacua TD.

Zero RB middle or RB bubble screens. Rams ran 2 jet sweeps. One was successful (Nacua) one was not Tutu). M
I dont think Staff can check into a screen call. But he can check out of one. I could be wrong of course.

[ramsman34]

I was wrong, 2 screens to Nacua. The slip for the TD and the outside bubble for a nice gain. I want more RB screens on the tackle bubbles and even in the middle. A shovel pass would be unexpected. And MORE TUTU. If the OL can protect, that dude is always open.