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Over his first 58 career regular season games, Tyler Higbee was targeted 141 times on offense, catching 86 passes for 884 yards and five touchdowns. Even throwing out the Jeff Fisher season, Higbee’s first 42 games for Sean McVay resulted in 75 catches for 799 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 10.65 yards per catch, 7.13 per target and a catch rate of 67-percent.
The Tyler Higbee that has evolved in McVay’s offense over the last seven games is something much different as a receiver.
After leading the NFL in receiving yards over the final five games of 2019, Higbee has hit another milestone by recording three touchdowns in the Rams’ 37-19 win over the Eagles on Sunday.
In his last seven games, Higbee has been targeted 65 times, catching 51 passes for 616 yards and five touchdowns. He’s averaging 12.07 yards per catch, 9.47 yards per target and has caught 78.4-percent of his targets from Jared Goff. The only thing that had been missing during Higbee’s increased role in the passing offense was his presence in the red zone, but not only did Goff find him three times for a touchdown, he nearly had a touchdown in a different situation that was called back for offensive pass interference.
In a game with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert as the Eagles best receiving options, Higbee was targeted at least four times in the red zone for touchdown opportunities. And he converted three of those.
Jared Goff connects with Tyler Higbee in the red zone for 6️⃣! #RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/Kcr35t2wH3
— uSTADIUM (@uSTADIUM) September 20, 2020
Jared Goff hits Tyler Higbee for another TD to extend the Rams (+1.5) lead to 21-3, cashing the 1H over (23.5)
— Bet The Pigskin (@betthepigskin) September 20, 2020
Higbee to score 2+ TD's (+2000) ✅#BarstoolSportsbook
pic.twitter.com/m3SGm4IV5M
Another wrinkle to Higbee’s presence as one of the NFL’s top receiving threats at the position has been the downgraded role for teammate Gerald Everett. After leaving last week’s win over the Dallas Cowboys, Everett was active for Sunday’s game against Philadelphia. However, he was never targeted by Goff and Higbee again proved to be at least equally important to his quarterback’s game plan as LA’s top three wide receivers.
The Rams can be thankful that they extended Higbee when they did as is annual salary averages only $7 million from 2021-2023. Everett is a free agent next year.
The first career TWO TD for #LARams Tyler Higbee ❗️pic.twitter.com/6P00zcVgU1
— Rams Nation (@RamsNationLAX) September 20, 2020
This was the first game of his career with multiple touchdowns. He’s having a lot of “firsts” recently. The most important to add to his resume this year might be the times when he’s “Jared Goff’s first option.”
That’s becoming more common as of late.