St. Louis Rams Closing Evaluations: What Grades Do the Wide Receivers Receive?

Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

Stedman Bailey: It’s difficult to know what to make out of Stedman Bailey’s 2014 season. During training camp, the second-year wideout looked like the Rams’ most talented receiver. He missed the first two games of the season due to a drug suspension that ended up being overturned, but when he came back he exhibited more of his familiar form. At times this year Bailey looked like a legitimate number one receiver, but it seemed as if the Rams’ coaching staff struggled with finding good ways to integrate him into the offense.

Despite the fact that Bailey trailed only Kenny Britt in yardage among the wide receivers this year, he didn’t get a huge amount of playing time. Bailey was on the field for only 420 of the Rams’ 1037 offensive snaps this year according to Pro Football Focus, which means he was only out there for 40.5 percent of the plays. As the season went on, the Rams used Tavon Austin more frequently as an outside receiver, which limited Bailey’s opportunities and didn’t really make a whole lot of sense overall.

Bailey finished the year with 30 catches for 435 yards and a touchdown. He had a very satisfactory 69.8 percent catch rate, and he had a team-leading average of 5.8 yards per catch. With those numbers in mind, it’s difficult to know why Bailey’s usage was so spread out.

Of the 14 games that he played in, Bailey was limited to one or zero catches in six of them. There were only four games in which he had more than two receptions, and three of those—a seven-catch, 89-yard performance against San Diego, a five-catch, 100-yard effort against Oakland and a five-catch, 74-yard night against Arizona—were huge games that accounted for a large chunk of his total yardage for the season.

Bailey was very good whenever he was called upon in 2014. It’s a shame that the coaching staff wasn’t able to integrate him more, but maybe he needs to do a better job of asserting himself in order to get more opportunities.

GRADE: B+

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