I heard Sean McVay talking up Tutu Atwell last week, suggesting he might be emerging as the team’s third receiver, and my tendency was to roll my eyes. Atwell has done next to nothing in his first two seasons, so isn’t it about time to pull the plug on him permanently? Or is it?
Picking through the numbers, I see that a number of other wide receivers have been able to get things going (at least somewhat) after lackluster starts to their careers.
Neither Adam Thielen nor Wes Welker caught 30 passes in their first two seasons combined, and they went on to put together great careers.
Neither Stevie Johnson nor Jerricho Cotchery caught 20 passes in either of their first two seasons, but both moved up to 82 catches in Year 3.
And Robert Meachem scored 10 touchdowns in his third season, after catching only 12 passes in his first two years. So while it may not happen often, it does occur on occasion.
In the 32-team era, I see 13 wide receivers (about one every other year) who haven’t caught 30 passes in either of their first two seasons, then moved up to finishing with top-50 overall numbers (using PPR scoring) in their third season.
| LATE-BLOOMING WIDE RECEIVERS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | No | Yds | TD | PPR | Rk | Rookie | 2nd Yr |
| 2010 | Stevie Johnson, Buff. | 82 | 1073 | 10 | 249.3 | 10 | 10-102-2 | 2-10-0 |
| 2006 | Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ | 82 | 961 | 6 | 216.6 | 19 | 6-60-1 | 19-251-0 |
| 2009 | Mike Sims-Walker, Jac. | 63 | 869 | 7 | 191.9 | 24 | 0-0-0 | 16-217-0 |
| 2003 | Justin McCareins, Ten. | 47 | 813 | 8 | 177.6 | 24 | 3-88-0 | 19-301-2 |
| 2009 | Robert Meachem, N.O. | 45 | 722 | 10 | 185.4 | 26 | 0-0-0 | 12-289-4 |
| 2011 | Darrius Heyward-Bey, Oak. | 64 | 975 | 4 | 185.5 | 28 | 9-124-1 | 26-366-1 |
| 2002 | Jerry Porter, Oak. | 51 | 688 | 9 | 178.4 | 30 | 1-6-0 | 19-220-0 |
| 2016 | Adam Thielen, Min. | 69 | 967 | 5 | 197.2 | 30 | 8-137-1 | 12-144-0 |
| 2006 | Bernard Berrian, Chi. | 51 | 775 | 6 | 165.0 | 33 | 15-225-2 | 13-246-0 |
| 2006 | Devery Henderson, N.O. | 32 | 745 | 6 | 143.9 | 41 | 0-0-0 | 22-343-3 |
| 2006 | Wes Welker, Mia. | 67 | 687 | 1 | 141.7 | 42 | 0-0-0 | 29-434-0 |
| 2008 | Devin Hester, Chi. | 51 | 665 | 3 | 141.6 | 44 | 0-0-5 | 20-299-8 |
| 2004 | Eric Parker, S.D. | 47 | 690 | 4 | 145.3 | 45 | 17-268-1 | 18-244-3 |
| 2023 | Tutu Atwell, LAR | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 0-0-0 | 18-298-2 |
| 2023 | Dee Eskridge, Sea. | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 10-64-1 | 7-58-0 |
We’ve got two prominent candidates to potentially join this club this year. Atwell and Dee Eskridge were both selected in the second round by NFC West teams two years ago, and neither has done much so far.
Eskridge, who’s been slowed by injuries in both of his seasons, faces the steeper uphill climb of the two. The Seahawks have a pair of well-established star receivers and just added another pass catcher in the first round. Barring injuries, will be tough for him to get on the field much.
With Atwell, there’s at least been some flickers of potential. He was on the field for only 30 plays with Matthew Stafford last year, and came up with 54- and 62-yard receptions in those games. He’s got the speed to get deep.
With Cooper Kupp injured, Atwell got the chance to play more in the final seven weeks, but without much of an impact. With Stafford also missing all of those games, Atwell mostly caught short passes around the line of scrimmage that didn’t do much damage. He caught 16 passes for 182 yards in those seven games, with another 23 yards (and a touchdown) on 8 running plays.
The Rams are entering this year with Kupp and Van Jefferson as their starting receivers, but they need a third guy. McVay indicated last week that he likes what he’s seeing out of Atwell. “I think it’s really early, but Tutu Atwell is a guy that’s really done an excellent job,” McVay said. “He’s super smart. Obviously, he’s well known for his speed, but he’s really done a great job in this offseason and it showed up today of really establishing himself, playing with aggressive hands, understanding the nuances of how we want to work edges and separate where he fits within the concepts.”
Atwell was a good deep threat at Louisville, especially as a sophomore. He caught 69 passes for 1,272 yards and 11 touchdowns in the 2019 season. But he’s awfully small. He’s listed at 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds.
I expect he’ll open the season as the third receiver for the Rams, probably hitting on a few deep balls, but it would need to be an awfully deep league (a best-ball format, perhaps) before anyone would want to consider drafting him.
—Ian Allan