The Los Angeles Rams have one of the best tight end rooms in the NFL. It's the combination of the quality of the players, how they're developed, and how they're utilized in the team's offense. As the position evolves, they are also helping to keep their elder teammates healthy for the 17-game season grind.
Their work, especially with the team's groundbreaking 13-personnel offense, played a pivotal role in Matthew Stafford winning his first MVP at 37 years of age. At the offense's peak, Stafford sliced and diced defenses, using his tight ends' physical gifts to outmaneuver undersized defensive backs.
Entering Year 2 of this trend, Stafford spoke on the development of the position, stating that his unit is stocked with athletic playmakers.
“The caliber
of athlete is as good as it gets right now at that position," said Stafford. "I tell people that all the time. It's one thing to trot two or three of them out there, but you've got to have two or three guys that make a football team better too. Our guys do that. We're lucky to have them both from a physicality and a mentality standpoint, but also just the smarts to go out there and execute and do what we ask them to do in all sorts of different alignments versus different defensive personnels.
"They're really smart and can do all that. I'm happy to have all those guys and definitely it's changed a bunch. I know when I first got here even, there was one on the field at all times. If we ever got two on there, we always joked that we would practice it and then we never ran it in a game. Now they're all over the place, which is great.”
The Rams' change from their heavy use of 11 personnel towards a more balanced offense helped their run game become even more efficient, with Kyren Williams and Blake Corum finding massive success on the ground due to the blocking advantages provided by tight ends. That led to Stafford being able to use play action to freeze defenses against fronts that were exhausted from stopping the run.
Stafford was kept clean while he torched opponents. The other portion of Stafford's success was Davante Adams. Adams, paired with Williams' versatility, became the team's answer to their multi-year red zone issues.
Adams was solid in 2025, but his lethal nature revealed itself in the red zone as his constant targeting led to the future Hall of Famer leading the NFL in receiving touchdowns, which resulted in the Rams having the NFL's No. 1 offense.
As an older player, Adams spoke about how the tight ends have kept him fresh and healthy.
“[There's] a little less action out there sometimes," said Adams. "Sometimes you feel a little fresher because we do cycle in a lot of those guys with our 13-personnel or 12-personnel variations. We get a little bit more rest, but it's fun because we throw them off, we put them out there, and then we still go and throw the ball deep and [we] got different ways to keep them on their toes so it's fun.”
Adams used the confusion the tight ends induced to dominate, and while he did suffer an injury that kept him out of the final weeks of the regular season, he could've played if needed, and did play in the Rams' three playoff games.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: How Rams' tight ends help keep other stars fresh and healthy
