The Los Angeles Rams offense is going under another identity change this offseason following the team moving on from wide receiver Cooper Kupp. It won’t be the first time this has happened. Head coach Sean McVay has been one of the best at adjusting and improving the offense from a year-over-year basis. In 2021, the Rams moved to more of an under center, play-action game to more empty with Matthew Stafford at quarterback. Two years ago, the offense made arguably its biggest identity shift moving from a zone run scheme to more gap and duo concepts.

Coming off of a season in which the offense finished 15th in EPA per play and 13th from week 9-17, it’s not something that McVay will be content with. Even in 2023 with the offense dealing with injuries, the Rams offense finished 9th in EPA per play. It’s not often that a McVay offense finishes outside of the top-10 and the 2024 season was the first time that it happened since 2020 when they finished 23rd.

While 15th isn’t bad, it’s an average or above average standard that McVay has never settled for offensively. The most concerning part of the Rams offense was the lack of explosive plays. They ranked 15th in pass plays of 20 or more yards and just 19th in passes that traveled more than 20 yards in the air.

The offense struggled creating yards after catch. They finished 13th in yards after the catch per reception which was down from fifth in 2023. Their 5.44 yards after catch per reception was only .07 yards better than 2022 when Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp missed half of the season. That doesn’t even mention the run game in which they ranked 32nd in explosive run rate by nearly a full percentage.

Due to the lack of explosive plays, scoring for the Rams offense was hard. While they were efficient on a play-by-play standpoint, they averaged the fifth most plays per drive. However, unlike other teams in the top-5, they were just 15th in scores per drive. That was the lowest among the other teams in the top-5 in plays per drive. For comparison, the Rams were sixth in plays per drive in 2023, but they were also seventh in scores per drive.

After the season, McVay said about the offense,

“I think the biggest thing is there would be a little bit more versatility…How do you utilize the offseason and how are you making yourself more versatile from a personnel perspective or from a run variety perspective? Those are the things that I’m excited to be able to dive into. I was talking to Liam Coen the other day. One of the coolest things that I think is reflected about what a great job he did was you’ve got a background and then when you watch them evolve with Bucky Irving and the way they ran the football and some of the variety and personnel groupings, I thought that was a cool reflection of maybe we think we’re going to do that and then what you evolved into if you’re able to understand that the best coaches adjust to their players. That’s what we’ve got to do a good job of as it moves forward from what it looks like from our offensive line and from the surrounding parts with our backs. I could go on and on about the variety of things that I’m excited about attacking to hopefully avoid some of the pitfalls that we had throughout the year to ultimately lead to more consistent production and play regardless of whatever our injury situation is.”

The Rams running it back with the same personnel was never going to happen. It’s true that they came 14 yards away from hosting the NFC Championship game and arguably then going to the Super Bowl. With that said, it’s also true that the Rams offense had its issues outside of the injuries. To simply run it back as is would be getting complacent and content. Over the past eight years, it’s pretty clear that’s not how McVay works. If a coach isn’t consistently trying to find an edge, they fall behind. That was a lesson that McVay learned after losing in 2018. The NFL is constantly evolving.

For much of the McVay era, the Rams offense has been intertwined with a lot of the pieces looking alike. That’s not a bad thing, but it also limits how much versatility an offense has from a personnel standpoint. Robert Woods and Kupp did different things, but they were both similar style wide receivers. Puka Nacua is a similar style of wide receiver as both Kupp and Woods. It’s true that he does some things differently and very well, but the overall play-style is similar. The same can be said about Jordan Whittington.

When the Rams have tried to introduce a different style of wide receiver such as a vertical deep threat, it’s mostly failed. It’s not a role that they’ve been consistently able to fulfill. There was some success with Brandin Cooks, but it has been the “tweener” big slot type receivers that have had the most success in the McVay offense.

The same can be said about the run game. Blake Corum was drafted last year because he was a similar style player as Kyren Williams. When Williams was hurt in 2023, the run game struggled. However, that seemed to be more about the talent behind Williams than the style of player. There’s going to be a drop off when you go from Williams to Royce Freeman or Darrell Henderson.

It seems McVay is starting to realize this to an extent. While moving on from Kupp isn’t an easy decision from an emotional standpoint, it was probably the correct one. Kupp wasn’t separating as well as he used to and wasn’t as dynamic after the catch.

The Rams offense is going to shift this offseason and the skill position players are likely going to look a lot different. This is a wide receiver room that’s going to be built around Puka Nacua and his skillset. That’s one reason why the Rams needed to move on from Kupp. This offseason is going to be about adding and finding wide receiver archetypes that best complement Nacua and building the passing game around him. That has to be the priority as well as getting some versatility in the running back room.

At the end of the day, what the Rams offense looks like is going to be different. What that exactly means is yet to be determined. What does the personnel look like? What schematic changes does McVay make? McVay has changed his offensive identity over the years and there’s a chance next season is version 2.5 of that offense. The first step of accomplishing that heading into 2025 was moving on from Kupp.