Duos. Dominance. Dawgs.
The NFL has this odd love for excellent wide receiver tandems. Perhaps because it is so rare to have two top players at their position be able to not only co-exist but contribute equally on the same team that we as fans fall in love with those duos whenever they pop up. Swann and Stallworth. Rice and T.O. Cris Carter and Randy Moss.
Buy Rams TicketsThe list goes on and on, and Rams fans know it well. Cooper Kupp won a Super Bowl paired with Odell Beckham Jr. Kupp broke out alongside that one golden year with Brandin Cooks and Robert Woods, and that banner that hangs in SoFi displaying the Super Bowl Kupp and the Rams won in February 2022 waves nicely next to the one celebrating the Super Bowl won by Hall of Famer Issac Bruce and should-be Hall of Famer Torry Holt. Sunday was the appetizer, the first look, the introduction into the next great wide receiver duo in the NFL. Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua are a problem for opposing defenses and the pieces Sean McVay needs to usher in a new era of offensive innovation for the Rams.
When Mike Martz was fired by the Rams in 2005, it marked the start of a woeful 11 years of missed playoffs and wasted offensive potential. So when Sean McVay publicly considered retirement, many Rams fans felt that familiar fear that plagued them throughout the latter half of the 2000s and into the 2010s. Now it’s clear that McVay loves his job, but that love can only last when there is a benefit that comes back to you. After a down year in 2022, the Rams have been able to shed a bunch of poor contracts, giving McVay and GM Les Sneed the flexibility needed to build a contender. The one position they don’t have to worry about is wide receiver.
There was some concern that Matthew Stafford would go back to old habits and continually force the ball to Kupp upon his return. However, if Sunday’s game against the Eagles served as a glimpse into the future, Nacua is going to get his, as well. Let’s not get confused: Kupp is still WR1 for the Rams and Stafford’s most trusted target. That will never change as their connection won both of them a Super Bowl. It was nice to see the parity in Stafford’s ball distribution. In 2022, Kupp dominated the share of targets with him getting 98 in only nine games played, being 37 targets clear of Ben Skowronek who was second on the team with 61 in 14 games played. It should be noted that this was from the entire 2022 season where Baker Mayfield, Bryce Perkins and John Wolford all had starts, as well.
However, in the game against the Eagles on Sunday, Kupp had 12 targets to Puka Nacua’s 11 and their equal distribution showed in the stat line. Kupp had eight catches for 118 yards as Nacua had seven catches for 71 yards and one incredible touchdown.
PUKA BEFORE HALFTIME
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The numbers are one big element of the puzzle but McVay’s bread and butter comes from his schematic designs that manipulate defenses into providing open pockets of space and favorable matchups for pass catchers. What McVay did Sunday was an example of that. He constantly lined up Kupp and Nacua on the same side, stacking them like the Eagles like to do with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, while also using them in trips formations which allowed Kupp to run his patented deep crossing route from the slot while opening up the screen for Nacua underneath, who was often times lined up wide. This also allowed McVay to build off it with the shifty Tutu Atwell, who scored the Rams’ first touchdown of the game – a pass coming off of hiding him behind Nacua and Kupp via pre-snap motion.
The possibilities of what McVay can do with Kupp and Nacua are endless and when you have such a brilliant and innovative offensive mind like McVay at the helm, the promise of tomorrow grips you like fine cinema. The Rams currently sit at 2-3 but with back-to-back home games against teams with bottom-feeder DB rooms, it looks like the clouds are clearing and the sun is shining through for Los Angeles.
The roster has a long way to go but knowing that you have two pass-catching studs already in hand provides a comforting feeling that the franchise can spend its 2024 first-round pick on a much bigger need. We are at the don of a new era and should Kupp continue to stay healthy, the new edition of the Greatest Show on Turf will once again grace Rams fans here in the 2020s.
