From Greatest Show to a Cooper Kupp/OBJ combo

LOS ANGELES — By the time Les Snead took over as general manager in 2012, the Rams had gone more than half a decade without a difference-making wide receiver.

It didn’t get much better in Snead’s first five seasons on the job, either. Between 2007 and 2016, no Rams wideout even reached 800 yards. For a fan base that associates Rams success with top-tier wideout production — Tom Fears, Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch, Henry Ellard, Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt — it wasn’t close to enough. The demand wasn’t just for better, it was for elite.

“Now thinking of it like that, I can’t believe they didn’t burn my house down considering you go from those receivers to what we were doing,” Snead said, laughing.

Snead can chuckle now because the Rams have reversed course at wide receiver, a position that has been integral any time they’ve reached the Super Bowl.

As Los Angeles prepares to face the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI on Sunday at SoFi Stadium (6:30 p.m. ET, NBC), it’s no coincidence the Rams’ return to football’s grandest stage has aligned with the resurgence of a once-dormant receiver corps.

In 2021, led by triple crown winner Cooper Kupp as well as Van Jefferson and Odell Beckham Jr., Rams receivers were first in yards (3,964), receptions (286) and touchdowns (32).

Dating to their 1999, 2001 and 2018 Super Bowl seasons, the Rams finished no worse than third in receiving yards, fifth in receptions and seventh in receiving touchdowns in any of those seasons.

The connection between winning and receiver production is not lost on Kupp. He maintains contact with Bruce and Holt — Bruce even congratulated Kupp on breaking his franchise single-season receptions record — and wants to do right by them.

“I grew up with my high school coach talking a lot about having respect for the guys who came before you, having respect…