The Rams brought Tutu Atwell back on Thursday, sending Jarquez Hunter to the Miami Dolphins in a move that adds another receiver to a roster already crowded at the pass-catching spots. Atwell returns on a $1.075 million contract as the Rams move toward Sunday’s cutdown day.
That matters now because the Rams have already made clear how they want to handle the positions that decide the final 53-man roster. They are keeping three quarterbacks again, with Matthew Stafford, Stetson Bennett and Ty Simpson in place, and Bennett is likely to take the backup job Jimmy Garoppolo held the past two seasons. If Stafford suffers a significant injury, the Rams could still call Garoppolo, but for now the quarterback group is set.
The rest of the roster points in the same direction. The Rams should roll with just three running back options to start the season, with Kyren Williams, Blake Corum and Ronnie Rivers in. Williams and Corum are expected to share carries, while Rivers serves as a versatile special teams player. Waters and Connors also impressed this preseason, but the main squeeze is elsewhere: the Rams listed Puka Nacua, Davante Adams, Jordan Whittington, Konata Mumpfield, Xavier Smith, Atwell and CJ Daniels as in at receiver, while Alex Bachman, Tru Edwards, Brennan Presley and Tyler Scott were listed as out.
That is where the friction shows up. Whittington and Smith became roster locks when the Rams gave them steady special teams roles, and the team has also been impressed with Mumpfield’s growth in his second season. Adding Atwell back into that mix does not simplify the math. It makes the Rams choose between carrying a deep group and exposing other useful players to waivers, even as the team says it wants to keep five tight ends — Terrance Ferguson, Colby Parkinson, Tyler Higbee, Davis Allen and Max Klare — on top of seven receivers. The roster picture is complicated further by the fact that the Rams returned nearly every starter from last season’s NFC Championship Game loss, making the edges of the roster more important than the top.
By Sunday, the Rams will have to turn all of that into one 53-man roster and then a 16-man practice squad. The move for Atwell suggests they are willing to add talent even when the depth chart is already crowded, which means the final cuts may say as much about special teams and flexibility as they do about pure production.
