Could Higbee Solve Rams Offensive Woes?

A lot has been written about the Rams offense or lack there of and certainly the team has taken steps towards getting better. Signing Andrew Whitworth and making an offer on Grory provides their line with a massive upgrade and Robert Woods looks to be an expensive gamble at receiver. They are also expected to dedicate their second and third round picks towards an offensive player be it another lineman and or receiver to give Jared Goff something to work with after letting Kenny Britt walk. Sean McVay certainly inherited a fixer upper when he took the job in January but based on Les Snead’s most recent statements, the team thinks they have an in house solution to solve a lot of their issues on offense. Snead’s words “expect big things from Tyler” as in second year tight end Tyler Higbee.

Higbee only registered eleven catches last season but that’s primarily because Jeff Fisher still believed the jury was out in regards to utilizing the forward pass. McVay’s run in Washington thrived because he got a lot of production out of multiple tight end sets and that might be a big part of why the Rams hired him. During McVay’s two year stint as offensive coordinator in Washington he utilized two sometimes three tight end sets to the tune of 184 offensive snaps which ranked 7th in the league. The Rams in the same category were 25th, so its clear the Rams salvation really might lie within. Higbee has a Jordan Reed type build so its logical McVay sees similar production out of him. Higbee is 6’4 making him the tallest target on the team by far and Snead has talked about his “catch radius” and his “ability to stretch the seam”. They allowed Lance Kendricks to leave (he signed with Green Bay) as he wasn’t a good fit in Los Angeles and outside of Higbee they have Corey Harkey who is primarily a blocker, and Temarrick Hemingway who they drafted in the 6th round an is largely an unknown quantity. They could very well use the draft to find another tight end as this draft is flush with talent.

Higbee obviously won’t all of a sudden become Jordan Reed but if McVay can get more than a paltry 11 catches out of the guy it’ll be an improvement. If Goff can develop a rapport with Higbee then he’ll at least have one safety valve to throw to and just having that will make the Rams significantly better by virtue of having someone besides Britt catching passes. Les Snead seems pretty confident in Higbee and while the cynic might view that as Snead hyping a guy because he a)drafted him and b)there isn’t a better option readily available but option c) might be that no receiver outside of Britt was going to thrive in the offense they had last year and now that McVay has been brought in he can actually coax and develop the talent Jeff Fisher ignored. Goff needs all the help he can get and Higbee could potentially help him make a giant leap next season.