Kendricks is a solid pass catcher right now, and I think Lilly deserves some credit on that front, along with the combo of Boras/Groh schematically. But Lance looks much smoother and settled in right now and I gotta give the position coach cred there. The fact that Higbee has taken to the offense so quickly at a position where you normally see impact in year 2 for the good ones also seems to point to Lilly doing a fine job of covering and teaching fundamentals.
But either way these two guys should probably be on the field more than what the Rams have seen at TE in many years. Kendricks' value is he's a great blocker and those guys get forgotten about by DBs and LBs as they try to key on the obvious pass catching threats on the passing downs, so he's got to get a lot of snaps. Higbee is basically a big WR, so not sure you can call it 12 when he's in there at Y but he's going to need to be on the field too and I'll also add the dude is so big he blocks well just getting in the way of the defenders in space.
If you put the WR and TE groups together to stack the best pass catching options and consider that against the two-way benefit of Kendricks in particular, it really does look like 12 personnel will be on the rise when the Rams start the season. Definitely against NFC West opponents right out the gate, and I think it's going to work really well when you consider that rebuilt OL and Gurley out of the backfield.
