One year after the Rams drafted Puka Nacua in the 5th round, will Jordan Whittington need to step up?
Who knew that following a fifth round rookie receiver one year later would be such a tall order for a sixth round rookie receiver. Nobody expects Rams rookie Jordan Whittington to have a historic season just because Puka Nacua did and plays for the same team, or even anything close to it, but does our knowledge of what happened last year make it impossible to ignore that a lot of receivers are being compared to Puka Nacua right now.
Whittington just happens to be the one who was also drafted by the Rams.
So even though we can all logically sit here and honestly say that we aren’t putting pressure on Whittington to be a standout just because Puka was, I can also say that I can’t think of Whittington without thinking of Puka. Sorry, that’s just a fact we have to deal with, it was set in motion when the Rams picked a late round receiver.
What sort of impact can Jordan Whittington have as a rookie?
There’s already been a bit of pressure on Whittington to be a steal and a future 1,000-yard receiver. And who knows, anything could happen and Puka was a surprise fifth round receiver.
But Whittington finds himself in a boat where in the past 15 years the only receivers drafted in the sixth or seventh round to have a 1,000 yard seasons are Antonio Brown, who did it a lot, and Pierre Garcon, who did it twice.
I think if there’s a realistic bar for Jordan Whittington to cross, like for example he just makes the 53-man roster out of training camp, that’s where anything that comes after that becomes a surprising bonus. Whittington will enter camp with a probability to make the roster but not a certainty.
Jordan Whittington as a prospect
It has been said by many draft experts that the number of players who returned to college for money because of the NIL system made the 2024 class much weaker on day three than usual. This could continue for a while or it could make for a deep draft class in 2025, although next year’s first round is predicted to be much worse off at quarterback.
This means that some argue that players picked in the sixth and seventh round this year might have been undrafted free agents a year or two ago.
The heartbeat of the team.
Here’s the best of Jordan Whittington @J_Whitt3 x @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/OEdAfZqiPT
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) April 30, 2024
Whittington was a four or five-star recruit in 2019 and ranked as the 33rd overall recruit in the country. He switched from receiver to running back and then back to receiver, then dealt with injuries including a broken clavicle. Ultimately, Whittington’s career boils down to production that wouldn’t get most players drafted, but an argument that he hasn’t played his best football yet.
Whittington was at Texas for five years and he scored six touchdowns. The Longhorns kept bringing in receivers who were more polished and ready than him to contribute at a high level, including Xavier Worthy in 2021, tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders in 2022, and transfer AD Mitchell in 2023.
Worthy was drafted 28th, Mitchell went 52nd, and Sanders was the first pick of day three. He was fourth in a group behind three NFL pass catchers. Could the 6’1, 205 lb Whittington be the “Matt Cassel” of receivers?
A hamstring injury prevented Whittington from doing drills at the combine, so to the degree that he would have excelled at those events like his teammates did doesn’t have a guaranteed answer. Lance Zierlein calls him a “big slot target with excellent toughness”, but that he “lacks explosiveness associated with competing in the league” and projected him as an undrafted free agent.
Competition on the Rams
I have no choice but to assume everyone will be healthy until there’s news that they won’t be for Week 1, so that means that Cooper Kupp, Puka Nacua, and Demarcus Robinson already have spots on the roster. Tutu Atwell and Ben Skowronek would be surprising cuts.
With five receivers, that leaves Sean McVay the option to keep zero more, one more, two more. There’s no real way to know right now, but Whittington is competition with players who are more experienced like Tyler Johnson. Or receivers who went undrafted, which isn’t that far away from the sixth round.
Those currently being Sam Wiglusz of Ohio, J.J. Laap of Suny Cortland, and Drake Stoops, of Bob.
Laap averaged 22.1 yards per catch in Division-III football last season:
According to SUNY Cortland Athletics, Laap started all 11 games last season, leading the team with 41 receptions for a team-high 907 yards and six touchdowns. He averaged a team-best 22.1 yards per reception. In a 2023 win over Wittenberg University (Ohio), he caught nine passes for a school-record 312 yards and two touchdowns, including one for 90 yards.
But we know that Les Snead is likely to keep looking at free agent receivers right up until the season. Whittington enters the same exact boat as the undrafted free agents, Johnson, and Xavier Smith, a 2023 undrafted free agent.
The Rams must have some plan to find that third receiver next to Kupp and Nacua, because Robinson is better served as a number four with Skowronek as a classic five. That leaves Atwell in position to finally grab hold of it, but with the injury history in this room we can expect Snead to be waiting for the right time to add a veteran receiver. It’s not likely that the Rams have unearthed a second Puka Nacua in this draft class, although that will long be the name we think of when the team picks a receiver on day three.
The only name he needs to live up to is Ben Skowronek, not Puka Nacua.