Rams stock up, stock down after falling to 1-3

Sean McVay’s red zone play-calling for the Rams remains a big question mark

The Los Angeles Rams fell to the Chicago Bears in Week 4 to move to 1-3 on the season. It certainly isn’t where many would have had the Rams at the beginning of the season, yet here we are. The defense remains a big question mark while the offense has been unable to win in the red zone. Here is this week’s stock up, stock down.

Stock Down: S Kam Kinchens

For being a third-round pick, there were a lot of expectations coming into the offseason. It was easy to look at the 11 interceptions over the last two years at Miami and get excited, but some of his negative traits have showed up on tape. At Miami, Kinchens had a tendency to take bad angles. That was evident on Sunday against the Bears.

Late in the first half, Kinchens took a bad angle on a checkdown to D’Andre Swift. The result was a 27-yard gain by Swift that set up a Bears field goal before the end of the half. On Swift’s touchdown run, Kinchens took another bad angle on the Bears running back. This isn’t to say that Kinchens is a bust, but he clearly isn’t ready to be starting.

Stock Up: WR Jordan Whittington

With more 11 personnel, the Rams were able to get more snaps to rookie wide receiver Jordan Whittington. While Whittington had some rookie mistakes, misreading coverages at times, he played pretty well. The rookie led Rams wide receivers in receptions and targets. He also remains a consistent presence in the run game as a blocker.

This is a player that the Rams can be excited about moving forward after this year. He’s someone that’s going to add valuable depth to the receiving room and he’s already shown that in his first two games.

Stock Down: Sean McVay in the red zone

McVay’s issues in the red zone seem to be a consistent theme every year. While those issues have sometimes been overblown, that was not the case on Sunday against the Bears. There is something to be said about the Rams offense being without two offensive linemen and down both Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. However, McVay completely mismanaged the first three trips to the red zone.

The play calls and execution wasn’t good enough on early down which set up obvious passing situations and then with less space to work with, it becomes more difficult to pick up the needed yards. On the two-point conversion, McVay called a fade to Demarcus Robinson which is a low-percentage play. The Rams are taking these situations and making them harder than they need to be.

Stock Up: DL Braden Fiske

Rookie defensive lineman Braden Fiske got his first career sack against the Bears and he made it count. Fiske didn’t just get the sack, but was also able to knock the ball loose for a fumble.

Fiske had a pair of pressures, but there has been some concern with his slow start up to this point. The second-round pick was one of the more talked about players all offseason. For him to finally show more on the stat sheet is a positive sign.

Stock Down: WR Demarcus Robinson

This isn’t to say that Robinson has played poorly. Certainly the linebacker position could be talked about again, but that seems obvious at this point. Despite Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp being out the last two weeks, Robinson had two receptions against the Bears and a lone receptions against the 49ers.

Robinson is in year nine and it should have been expected that he would be the player to step up and be the team’s number one wide receiver. Instead, it has been TuTu Atwell and Jordan Whittington. Robinson needs to do more. At 6’1, he should be more of a red zone threat and presence in that area than he has been to this point. Robinson is certainly more fit as the third or fourth option in an offense, but as the veteran, he should be doing more.