Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Alex Bachman has an opportunity to try and earn a spot near his hometown. Raised in Westlake Village nearby the Rams’ headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Bachman should feel right at home along with two college teammates from Wake Forest RB Matt Colburn II (roster preview) and QB John Wolford (roster preview) joining him in training camp.
#Rams rookie WR Alex Bachman’s big play ability likely caught the attention of #LA following the draft, leading them to pick him up as an UDFA
Bachman was a Top 100 Receiver in the nation last season (min. 10 Deep Targets) in Percentage of Deep Targets Caught with 42.1% (T-92nd) pic.twitter.com/2DMN9l5N3e
— PFF LA Rams (@PFF_Rams) May 28, 2019
As one of the rare Wake Forest football fans (and alums), Bachman has always caught my eye. He’s definitely not the most athletic, but somehow he just makes plays. He was consistently the “clutch” guy especially on deep routes which is not common for a relatively small and slow receiver on middle-of-the-road ACC team.
Roster Battle
Similar to WR Austin Proehl (roster preview) whose dad ironically went to Wake Forest, Bachman faces a huge uphill battle. The wide receiver group has the top four locked in (Brandin Cooks, Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Josh Reynolds) with WRs KhaDarel Hodge and JoJo Natson having the leg up on the potential last two spots with their previous experience in the NFL.
Expectations
There’s not much to expect but it’d be cool to see the Wake trio run a couple of cool plays in a preseason game…..
I don’t ask for much, but I wouldn’t mind an RPO in the preseason with John Wolford, Matt Colburn II and Alex Bachman running it for the Rams.
— Conor O’Neill (@ConorONeillWSJ) April 28, 2019
Chances of making the final roster (3/10)
Although it’s a great story to have Bachman come home to try out for his hometown team, it’s going to be hard. There’s a chance he could be a practice squad candidate or maybe get some bonus points for his return capabilities, but it’s still going to be an uphill battle because of the Rams depth at wideout.
I’ll bump him to a 3 because he went to such a fine school.