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After a demoralizing loss to the New York Giants in London where Case Keenum threw 4 costly interceptions, Jeff Fisher put on his #7and9Bullshit hat and said this:
Fisher: I'll make changes at receiver before I make a change at QB.
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) October 23, 2016
Wait.
What?
So your QB is ranked 27th in the NFL in QB Rating, has 10 interceptions to 8 touchdowns, TEN fumbles in 7 games, and his receivers are the problem? Yeah no.
Newsflash! The Rams WRs have actually been pretty good. We all know recent Rams production at WR by now but let's rehash for old-times sake, shall we?
The last Rams WR to crack 700 yards in a season was Torry Holt way back in 2007. That season he had 1189 yards. Since then, many have gotten close but no one has pushed through 700 yards in the ensuing 8 NFL seasons.
Through 7 games the 2016 campaign, here is what the stats for the Rams top 3 WRs look like:
Catches | Yards | TDs | |
Kenny Britt | 33 | 535 | 2 |
Brian Quick | 20 | 357 | 3 |
Tavon Austin | 36 | 299 | 2 |
Now that might not seem too fantastic, so let's extrapolate those over a 16 game season to see where they would fit in recent Rams history.
Catches | Yards | TDs | |
Kenny Britt | 75.4 | 1222.9 | 4.6 |
Brian Quick | 45.7 | 816.0 | 6.9 |
Tavon Austin | 82.3 | 683.4 | 4.6 |
That's no murder's row, but that's the best WR production that the Rams have seen under the last three regimes. If they continued to produce at this level, they'd have the two best seasons by WRs since '07 in addition to Tavon - who is filling the slot of WR who almost gets 700 yards (normally the best WR on the team)
Hell, it's almost respectable in today's pass-happy NFL. And they just got thrown under the damn bus by a coach who refuses to acknowledge that QB play is an issue.
For reference:
- Britt has more yards than Alshon Jeffrey, Emmanuel Sanders, Larry Fitzgerald, and Demarius Thomas
- Quick is 8th in yards per catch while Britt is 13th
- Britt is 14th in catches for a 1st down (25) and 6th in catches of 20+ yards.
That seems like pretty solid production to me. If Keenum would ever realize that Austin isn't 6'5", he'd likely be in the discussion here as well due to his 65 targets (T-9th in NFL)
Fisher is delusional if he believes the WRs are the problem. Someone please page him and tell him it's not 1999 anymore.
"I'll make changes at receiver before I make a change at QB."