When the Rams play their next game, Week 12 at Green Bay, Fox will televise the game. And Troy Aikman will be in the booth for it.
It will be interesting to see what he has to say about whether and to what extent the ball is thrown to receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
Appearing Tuesday morning on 96.7 The Ticket in Dallas, Aikman said (via Mark Lane) that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford “now feels some of the pressure that maybe Baker Mayfield felt of, ‘Hey, we got to get this guy involved,’ or ‘he’s in the game right now because he’s going to take this deep route and I’ve got to find a way to get the ball in his hands because that’s why he’s playing on this play.’” It’s not good, and it’s not good playing quarterback when you feel pressure to get the ball to one particular player. It just doesn’t work.”
It’s seems a little too early to make broad proclamations, but that deep ball thrown in Beckham’s direction on the opening drive definitely seemed forced. Even though it’s been suggested that Beckham stopped running, the ball was thrown far away from where he was.
For their next game, it makes sense to pay attention to the overall situation. As Aikman pointed out, bringing in just one player “can change the dynamic of a locker room.” It can creates cliques if the ball doesn’t go to Beckham enough, or if it goes to him too much.
Last night, as the main ESPN broadcast pointed out, the Rams spent plenty of time huddling when Beckham was in the game, because Beckham isn’t ready to pick up the play calls at the line of scrimmage. After the Rams fell far behind, they scrapped that approach and yanked Beckham from the game, so that a no-huddle attack could be utilized.
Beckham’s playing time and his overall involvement will be a major talking point in 12 days. Aikman, who was candid with his thoughts today, hopefully will be every bit as frank if it looks like Stafford and Beckham aren’t clicking, or that Beckham’s presence is otherwise creating potential issues for the offense.