Ferguson’s first career catch was an impressive one, showing how much potential he has as a playmaker at TE
Terrance Ferguson’s opportunities this season have been extremely limited. The Los Angeles Rams rookie tight end has played just eight offensive snaps and has been a healthy scratch for two of the team’s five games.
But on Thursday night against the San Francisco 49ers, he showed what made him a second-round pick in the draft this year. On third-and-4 with the Rams trailing 14-0, Ferguson made his first career catch – a 21-yard reception over a defender on a slot fade.
He wasn’t necessarily open, but Matthew Stafford put the ball in a perfect spot and Ferguson made a terrific leaping catch against tight coverage, coming down with the reception in traffic. According to Next Gen Stats, the pass only had a 27.6% completion probability, which shows how difficult a grab it was.
Sean McVay has said he wants to get Ferguson involved and he reiterated that point last week after seeing the rookie make the biggest play of his career thus far.
He was asked whether Ferguson is closer to seeing more playing time on offense and while McVay didn’t flat-out say yes, he did indicate his role will continue to grow the more experience he gains.
“Terrence is doing a good job. I think he certainly showed why he’s capable,” he said. “The one opportunity that he got – and he was separating on some other routes where he could have got the football and they ended up busting some coverages where he might have been the primary and we ended up finding Kyren (Williams) into the flat for a couple plays that you saw last night that Terrence was also winning and separating. He is doing a good job. … I think Terrence is only going to continue to improve and get more opportunities as we go because he showed that he’s got that capability that we loved so much coming out of Oregon the way that he was able to go up and make a big-time play for us last night.”
McVay was impressed by the rookie’s catch against tight man coverage, which is the type of grab the Rams loved seeing on tape at Oregon. He’s also elusive after the catch, which we haven’t gotten to see yet with just one career reception in five games, but Ferguson has shown he can be a receiving threat down the seam for Los Angeles.
Once again, McVay said he wants to get the rookie more involved and maybe that will happen in the coming weeks, especially if Tyler Higbee remains banged up.
“He’s a stud. He went up over the top of somebody in a man coverage and made a great contested catch for 20-plus yards,” McVay said. “We’ve got to be able to figure out a way to get him going. It was such a weird game. They possessed the ball 40 minutes. The plays were so limited early on and then you’re kind of playing from behind, but got in there in some of the third-down known passing situations. He’s going to be a really good player for us, I believe. I thought he did an excellent job with the opportunity that he had last night.”
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