Tell me what team doesn't spread the ball around?
I think the real questions are:
Do the Rams pass the ball enough?
Did the Rams target Watkins enough?
Here are some teams from 2017 and receptions by their top four receivers with targets to top receiver listed.
Pittsburgh - 101 85 58 50 - Brown 162 targets
New England - 69 65 68 56 - Gronkowski 106 targets
New Orleans - 104 81 58 53 - Thomas 122 targets
Philadelphia - 74 62 57 36 - Ertz 110 targets
Houston - 96 36 29 28 - Hopkins 176 targets
Atlanta - 88 67 49 36 - Jones 149 targets
LA Rams - 64 62 56 39 - Gurley 87 targets (Watkins had 70)
It looks to me that we have a lot fewer attempts than everyone but Philly.
Watkins completion % is 55%...with the players listed above being in the 59 - 67% range (throwing out Hopkins and Thomas). I think we can safely say that the teams listed have QBs who are more seasoned and accurate than Goff except for Houston, which had journeymen and a rookie and Philadelphia, which I think most of us agree that Wentz was ahead of Goff in 2017. I also would expect the completion % to TE's to be higher than a WR.
Increase the completions to Watkins by 4 and he is at 60%. Increase the targets by 2 per game and he gets 102 targets. He isn't far away from getting there. If the Rams determine they cannot target Watkins at least 100 times a season, then yes, they are wasting their money and his talent.
Finally...as an interesting note...Robert Woods had a fine season. However, we have become so accustomed to lousy WR play, we think of his results as being WR1 like even though he has never been considered a #1. Statistically, he had a year that was not much different than his career average.
2017 catches - 56
Career catches - 52
2017 yards - 646 - 12.4 ypc
Career catches - 781 - 13.9 ypc
