Rams WR Tutu Atwell 'Worst Draft Pick' of GM Les Snead Era?

The Los Angeles Rams once had the best receiver group in the NFL, and adding Tutu Atwell hurt more than it helped.

The Los Angeles Rams have employed Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods, Van Jefferson, Desean Jackson and Odell Beckham Jr. since 2021. If you're keeping score at home, that may be as good of a group as any franchise can boast.

The page has turned, and the Rams are strapped for receiver talent, needing young players like Tutu Atwell to step up in 2023.

But according to Fansided, Atwell is actually one of the top-5 worst draft picks of GM Les Snead's time with the franchise. The main issue? Atwell was drafted at the peak of the receiver room. It was too packed. 

"The problem with the pick of Tutu Atwell lies in the fact that the Rams' roster was quite saturated with wide receiver talent in 2021," Fansided wrote. "... despite the need for a true NFL center, the team ignored the fact that interior offensive lineman Creed Humphrey was still on the board."

Of course, armchair GM is the easiest game, and hindsight is 20/20. The 'what if' question will haunt players, fans and franchises in sports forever, but it seems pretty clear... a lineman should have been the play.

While Fansided remarked that Atwell isn't a bad player, there's still a hole that your team's second-round pick be productive enough to fill. 

"What I am saying is that if the Rams commit a second-round pick to select a wide receiver, you would logically expect that receiver to get more than 35 targets over the next two seasons."

Atwell has muddled in the organization for two years now, but he'll surely get opportunities in a unit that features major question marks outside of Kupp. The opportunity is there for Atwell to prove he's not a bust now.

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