A tale of two receivers (and franchises).
Here’s Merlin...
Operator please connect us to 2017 when two NFC West rivals hit the offseason skids with head coaching searches. Rams basically swiped the 9ers heirloom head coaching candidate from under their noses (9ers owner reportedly wanted McVay after their first interview but never got the chance for a second if my memory serves), while the 9ers ended up with Shanahan who had been linked mostly to the Rams. Both division rivals seemed to win the day on their hires, though, ending up with young and top offensive-minded head coaches so all looked well and it appeared would have an added incentive to their long rivalry in the coming seasons.
First up that offseason was the free agency period, where both organizations were looking for help in the passing game. Rams had a young QB who needed weapons he could count on. 9ers needed the QB and WR they could count on.
Enter a 30 old receiver named Pierre Garcon, who was very much coveted by many of the Rams' faithful, and going into the FA period I recall hoping we'd at least get him in the building as he'd played under McVay in Washington. But of course it wasn't to be, as the hated whiners brought him in and threw bags of money at him with a 5 year deal totaling nearly $50M and around $23M up front in the first couple years. His stats in his first two seasons:
2017 8 games, 40 receptions, 500 yards, 0 TD
2018 8 games, 24 receptions, 286 yards, 1 TD
Our Rams, meanwhile, went out and snapped up the unheralded Robert Woods, who in his Buffalo days had lived in the shadow of the heralded Sammy Watkins. At the time there were some in the media who actually bagged on the Rams for this signing, too, that we reached/overpaid to fill a need with $39M over five years with $15M guaranteed. His stats his first two seasons:
2017 12 games, 56 receptions, 781 yards, 5 TD
2018 16 games, 86 receptions, 1219 yards, 6 TD
With the news that the whiners will be parting ways with Garcon this offseason, plus the fact that they are poised to throw more money around on the market, I find it very interesting to look back on how these two regimes started their runs. We all know that McVay has outperformed Shanny Jr. But the Rams as an organization have outperformed the 9ers as well, and that's even with the fact that they haven't exactly hit on all their moves (most have been good of course). Will the whiners learn? Stay tuned looooooool.
