In January 2021, less than two years after torching the NFL with one of the best offenses in recent memory, the Los Angeles Rams hit a crossroad with their offense, head coach and starting quarterback. The Rams offense — which so recently felt fresh and dynamic, with its full commitment to three-wide-receiver looks, varying tempos and heavy use of motion on every snap — had started to feel tight, stagnant and claustrophobic.
The zone-heavy run started to get stonewalled by adjusting defensive coordinators running special game-planned fronts to nullify the Rams' ground game. The passing game that featured Jared Goff faking runs before firing deep route after deep route to Brandin Cooks or another ball across the middle to Cooper Kupp or Robert Woods was starting to be solved by safeties who started to see the passing concepts more frequently.