Rams trading WR Van Jefferson to Falcons in a draft pick swap

AP Source: Rams trading WR Van Jefferson to Falcons in draft pick swap

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams have agreed to terms on a trade to send receiver Van Jefferson and a

seventh-round draft pick in 2025 to the Atlanta Falcons for a sixth-round pick in 2025, a person with knowledge of

the deal told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the teams were still completing the deal.

Jefferson is a 2020 second-round pick who played a steady role on the Rams’ offense when healthy for his first three

NFL seasons. He started every game in Los Angeles’ 2021-22 championship season, setting career highs with 50

catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns before catching four passes in the Super Bowl.

But the Florida product has fallen out of the receiver rotation this year. He had been supplanted by record-setting

rookie Puka Nacua and speedy third-year pro Tutu Atwell even before Super Bowl 56 MVP Cooper Kupp made a

strong return from injury last Sunday against Philadelphia.

Jefferson’s fate was fairly clear when he played only two offensive snaps against the Eagles, with even Ben

Skowronek getting more playing time. Jefferson has eight catches for 108 yards this season.

Eagles Film Analysis: All-22 offense takeaways from the Rams game

This was an exciting game because the Rams have quite a unique defensive structure. They play a lot of 5-man fronts,

and 2-high shells, and remind me of the Eagles from last year in some ways. The way to counter this is with RPOs

and quick throws to the outside, and that’s what the Eagles did! This led to a lot of Dallas Goedert targets, and he

made them count, as you can see below! Look at him run through that safety!

Well, I got that one right. The Eagles QB run game was back in this one! I got way too excited when I saw QB Counter

Bash this week. The Eagles ran more gap scheme because it’s normally more successful against 5-man fronts, as it’s

really difficult to get to the 2nd level in the zone running game. This is just beautiful, and Hurts legs made a massive

difference in this game.

The Eagles’ redzone offense was pretty terrible once again, and I’ll get to that again later, but this play was a beauty.

This is my favorite route in the redzone because I just remember Zach Ertz consistently scoring with it a few years

ago. Greg Olsen called it the Nod 9 route and Goedert runs it perfectly here. This is a great concept and a fantastic

throw by Jalen Hurts too. This is outstanding quarterback play.