THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – In acquiring wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., the Rams believe they're getting a playmaker who will also help their existing receivers the rest of the season.
Speaking with reporters in a video conference Friday morning, Snead said the move was influence in part by the blessing of those receivers, wanting to keep them healthy the rest of the season and also getting someone who they know can thrive in head coach Sean McVay's offensive system.
"Anyone who can run the entire route tree has thrived in what Sean's evolved to, and he's one of those players," Snead said.
That skillset certainly creates enticing possibilities within Los Angeles' offense, but it also has value over the course of the season.
The Rams were seemingly bound to address their depth at wide receiver this week, given the departure of DeSean Jackson and season-ending injuries to rookies Tutu Atwell and Jacob Harris. Between those losses and having eight games ahead of them "and hopefully a lot more," Snead said, they were mindful of the workload of their current receivers moving forward.
"We did know that with at least how many games we got left, eight, seems like it's about eight and and hopefully a little bit longer, right. It's there's a lot of load on those players," Snead said. "And we were getting a little bit thin from a depth standpoint."
Snead confirmed the team put in a claim for former Rams wide receiver Josh Reynolds, who had been waived by the Titans after signing a one-year deal with them earlier this spring. However, Reynolds landed with the Lions, who were higher up on the waiver wire order.
Beckham, meanwhile, went unclaimed, and became an unrestricted free agent, with a player-led recruiting effort closing Beckham's decision to become a Ram on Thursday.
"That was a neat part of, let's call it, his vetting process," Snead said.
Whether Beckham plays Monday night against the 49ers is still to be determined, partially based on how quickly Beckham can get up to speed with the Rams' offense. McVay said they'll take things a day at a time with Beckham.
At the same time, "if we feel like he can help us go compete against the 49ers, we'll have him ready to go," McVay said.
Whenever Beckham is available, the potential for the Rams' offense excites McVay.
"There's not any limitations to his game," McVay said. "He's got the ability to play all over the formation, he can win isolations, he can win short, intermediate, down the field. His career resume kind of speaks for itself. And so that's an intriguing thing to be able to partner up with anybody that has that natural skill set. Just talking a little bit of ball with them, you can tell he's got a great football IQ, even just watching them over the last couple years, he can see the game makes sense to him. But as far as exactly what it means, what that role looks like, this is something that's going to be developing as we go, and we're going to try to get them up to speed as quickly as possible."
