Following a hamstring injury back in Week 7, the Los Angeles Rams placed wide receiver Tutu Atwell on injured reserve. However, Atwell was not placed on IR right away and the team waited until prior to Week 9 to actually do so. The injury was something that Atwell re-aggravated and it caused him to miss the next four games.
Atwell was slated to make his return in Week 13 against the Carolina Panthers via the team website and team reporter Stu Jackson. Despite being eligible to return and being activated into the 21-day practice window, Atwell was not brought up to the active roster from injured reserve. According to Adam Grosbard of the LA Daily News, there is a possibility that Atwell isn’t activated off of IR at the end of his 21-day practice window. Said McVay,
“We haven’t gone down that road yet but there are a number of things, like what we’ve talked about. I have a lot of love for him and what he’s done and how he’s handled it. It’s been a unique set of circumstances relative to the timing and figuring out how you get 48 guys up and being able to balance that out relative to how many on offense, how many on defense and your three specialists. That’s not something that we’ve explored or really thought is a possibility, but you never know.”
The circumstances around Atwell is certainly odd to say the least. NFL teams can designate up to eight players to return for the regular season and if that team makes the playoffs, they get two more. The Rams have currently used just one of those spots on Ahkello Witherspoon. They will also likely at least use two more on Tyler Higbee and Quentin Lake when they get healthy. Even if the Rams were to activate Rob Havenstein, they would still have 4-6 more IR activations available.
It’s not as if the Rams are scrambling when it comes to IR activations. While the offense has managed without Atwell, he’s still one of the more dynamic playmakers in the offense. Even with the Rams running more 12 and 13 personnel, Atwell still brings a unique deep threat ability and is better in that role than Xavier Smith.
This all goes back to the question of why the Rams brought Tutu Atwell back in the offseason. It’s not as if Atwell was being used when he was healthy. The Rams wide receiver has four receptions on nine targets. Even when he was healthy, he was fourth in the pecking order behind Jordan Whittington. Whittington was out-snapping Atwell on passing snaps 123 to 116.
During the offseason, the Rams signed Atwell to a one-year, $10 million deal that was fully guaranteed. While Atwell was signed before Davante Adams, McVay admitted in April that he hadn’t done a good enough job utilizing him and said that he would be on the field more. However, the exact opposite has happened.
As I noted back in Week 2, nobody would have faulted the Rams had they decided to move on from Atwell and gone their separate ways. However, they did bring him back and nothing has changed. It’s not Atwell’s fault that the Rams overpaid to bring him back. Atwell is also not at fault for his lack of usage. When he was targeted this season, he made the game-winning play against the Indianapolis Colts and put the Rams offense in position to beat the San Francisco 49ers. When he’s been targeted more than once in a game, he has a combined three receptions for 160 yards.
The Rams still have time to activate Atwell from the 21-day practice window, but it doesn’t seem as if they are in a rush to do so. If they don’t bring him back by next week, Atwell will be done for the season and it will be the most questionable move for a team that had a good free agency period otherwise.
Throughout most of the season, there have been questions when it comes to how the Rams planned to use Atwell more. Those plans simply haven’t come to fruition and if Atwell isn’t activated within the 21-day practice window, more questions deserve to be asked.
