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The Los Angeles Rams made it to a Super Bowl in Jared Goff’s third NFL season, but lost to the Patriots 13-3. Goff was stifled in that game and ended his Rams playoff career averaging just 216 yards passing while throwing a total of four touchdowns in six playoff games. It just wasn’t going to cut it and Sean McVay shipped him off to Detroit for Matthew Stafford. The Rams’ defense is near the top of the league and they hope Stafford can bring the offense to a place they can win in the playoffs.
Quarterback
- Matthew Stafford
- John Wolford
- Bryce Perkins
- Devlin Hodges
Running back
- Cam Akers
- Darrell Henderson Jr.
- Xavier Jones
- Raymond Calais
Wide receiver
- Robert Woods
- Cooper Kupp
- DeSean Jackson
- Van Jefferson
- Tutu Atwell
- Ben Skowronek
Tight end
- Tyler Higbee
- Johnny Mundt
- Brycen Hopkins
Biggest offseason changes
There’s no doubt that the biggest offseason move was bringing in Stafford to replace Goff. How much of an upgrade will Stafford be? It’s hard to say, but he should be an upgrade to the offense’s fantasy numbers.
The team also let wide receiver Josh Reynolds and tight end Gerald Everett go while picking up veteran speedster DeSean Jackson. The absence of Everett should help Higbee see a bigger percentage of the tight end work. Running back Malcolm Brown also left, leaving Cam Akers and Darrell Henderson as the primary 1-2 punch.
Biggest questions for fantasy football
Stafford is a bit of a wild card, but he lands in a great spot with McVay guiding him forward. Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp shouldn’t have any trouble being top fantasy plays this year with Stafford throwing them the ball and Stafford has a good shot at above average fantasy value himself.
Akers should be the RB1 with Henderson as his backup and possible third-down back. We could see their snap counts waver close together at times, but Akers should be able to hold onto the job and have good fantasy upside in 2021.
The targets after Woods and Kupp will be difficult to predict. The odds that Jackson stays healthy aren’t good, so we could see that WR3 job up for grabs at some point. Van Jefferson has the best shot, but but in the end I expect Higbee to be enough of a factor to have some value as a tight end while hurting whoever the WR3 ends up being.