Is Matthew Stafford suffering from tunnel vision?

There has been a lot rumbling about how Matthew Stafford has been doling out targets on pass plays this season. Although it is still very early in the season, the Rams have so far concentrated their targets amongst only two receivers and many are wondering if this is a problem or not.

That all depends on what Sean McVay wants his offense to be moving forward, but it’s certainly unusual.

Through the first three games of the season, Stafford has zoned in on Puka Nacua and Davante Adams for an amazing 69% of his throws, 67% of catches, and 74% of the yards. 69% of targets thrown at the top two is by far the strongest distillation since McVay took over in 2017: No other pair in the McVay era is over 50%.

Is this a year-to-year happening? A quirk of the McVay offense or Stafford in a state of tunnel vision?

It’s actually quite an outlier on both accounts. Last year, Stafford really spread the ball around. In the year-to-year numbers chart below, you can see that the Rams target shares have been stable throughout McVay’s nine years and through both quarterbacks, Stafford and Jared Goff. Not only WR#1 and #2, but all the way down the food chain. Even the crazy 2002 season with four different quarterbacks is not terribly out of balance.

The numbers below are from Pro Football Reference , they are formatted as leaders in order, not a subjective opinion of who’s WR#1 and so forth down the line. The players names are included to give an idea the individuals being targeted.