Need a tight end replacement? What about Gerald Everett?
Gerald Everett is a third year Tight End who in his two years in the league he has only started 2 games and has yet to surpass 35 receptions, 350 yards, and 3 TDs in a season.
His Dynasty ADP is currently #34 overall just before Jason Witten and Rob Gronkowski according to DLF July ADP. His re-draft ADP is even worse as he comes in as TE #39 overall just after Blake Jarwin and before Rickey Seals-Jones per Sleeper app. It’s easy to see why you may have forgotten about him after all this time, seems everyone else has too.
Allow me to re-introduce you to Gerald Everett, he just turned 25 years old, is 6-3 239 lbs and was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2017 draft. In addition, he also posted the following athletic and college production measurables and is currently tied to one of the most explosive and innovative offenses in the NFL.
The Rams are known for running a lot of 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) and rarely using the TE position in the passing game. This is why Everett’s teammates - Cooks, Woods, and Kupp - all have very similar ADP’s entering the year as everyone expects the Rams offense to continue with more of the same. But there in lies the rub, the Rams will not be running as much 11 personnel as before, in fact, they will be running more 2 TE sets than ever before and Gerald Everett will be the beneficiary of this change.
How do we know that they will be making this change? Well, you have to read the tea leaves.
1) The Super Bowl
The Rams lost the Super Bowl because they did not adapt to New England defense which was et up to shut down 11 personnel. In fact, the Rams most successful plays came in 2 TE sets in that game and its Sean McVay’s biggest regret that he didn’t make this adjustment in the game. Had the Rams run more 2 TE’s sets in the 2nd half, they might just be Super Bowl champions today.
2) Evolution of the offense
McVay has studied some of the best offensive minds in the NFL and he came away with one constant regarding these coaches, change. From a recent Wall Street Journal article.
“When McVay watches tape of their teams, one of the biggest revelations is that these coaches in many ways play completely differently than they did even just a couple of years ago. Sean Payton will thrive by spreading the field one year and then jamming it up the middle the next. Reid was at the forefront of adopting college schemes. McVay’s takeaway: they’re never too proud to study something new and go back to the drawing board, even when everything has been working just fine because they don’t want the rest of the league to catch up.
“That’s where it’s like, ‘Shoot, I certainly don’t know, and haven’t been coaching nearly as long as those guys,” McVay says. “But if you’re going to try to compete with them you better make sure that you’re pushing the standards and really challenging yourself and the coaches and the players to evolve.””
McVay has realized that in order to continue his NFL success it will involve evolving the offense many have come to expect.
3) The Rams are telling us and showing us
In March at combine General Manager Les Snead told Matthew Berry that McVay wants to use 12 personnel more but that it’s hard to with their wide receiver group.
“Sean will tell you that they both have different genres. Gerald can be an element of a matchup issue and Sean used him different than Higbee because of those reasons. So I think going forward in the future, he would like to utilize a little more 12 (personnel) than he has in the past. The problem is when Cooper Kupp’s been on the field and we’re in 11 personnel, we’ve been very successful. And one of the unsung reasons we’ve been successful in that package is all three of those guys – Cooks, Kupp and Woods – are really, really tenacious blockers. So we’ve proven to be able to run the ball out of 11 (personnel). I’m sure your analytics would say, ‘Oh, we’re in 11 a lot.’ But that’s a little bit of the reason because we can run the ball out of it and pass the ball out of it.”
Fast forward to training camp and we are hearing reports of more 12 personnel being implemented in practices. In fact, the Rams kicked off the preseason in this package, albeit with their 2nd/3rd stringers.
“Interesting to see that two of the teams practicing 12-personnel the most are the Vikings and Rams” - @StanleyJosh via Twitter on 8/19/2019
“Is it a sign? Rams start the 2019 preseason in 12 personnel: QB Blake Brotles, RB John Kelly, TE Johnny Mundt, TE Kendall Blanton, WR KhaDarel Hodge and WR Michel Thomas @usatodayNFL @DowntownRams @CVRamsClub #LAvsOAK” - @vcsjoecurley via Twitter on 8/10/2019
Finally, Gerald Everett began to outplay Tyler Higbee towards the end of the season last year. Everett was averaging about 34% of snaps but Everett out-snapped Higbee in five of the team’s last seven games, including the playoff run. He was on the field for 68% of the team’s snaps in both the NFC championship and the Super Bowl. What did Everett do with all those extra snaps you ask? Only produce some of the biggest most memorable plays of the year. He was responsible for the game-winning touchdown against Kansas City and grabbed a massive 39-yard reception late in the NFC championship.
If Everett can continue to develop as a blocker, and/or Kupp doesn’t return to full health right away, then he could be the reason to force McVay into evolving this offense before our very eyes. Gerald Everett has TE1 upside and he’s currently free in all formats as throw-in via trade in Dynasty or sitting on your waiver wire in Redraft.