How Will Stedman Bailey's Return Impact the St. Louis Rams' Offense?

There’s a number the St. Louis Rams care about. A lot, even after only two games.

It’s a rather round one, and on various digital data collecting services, it will be under the column that keeps track of how many passing touchdowns they’ve scored.

Through eight quarters of football the Rams have yet to register a single passing touchdown, the only team in the league still waiting to successfully convert that essential football scoring play. So they’ll warmly embrace any and all passing-game help, especially with Sam Bradford out for the season and Shaun Hill still ailing. And especially with Tavon Austin now down for at least two weeks.

Enter Stedman Bailey. He may not be the hero Rams fans want, or quite the hero they need. But he’s the hero they have.

Bailey was originally given a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing drug policy. But now he'll return early for Week 3 after the NFL and NFLPA finally agreed on changes to that policy.

The need for his presence and added depth goes beyond the temporary loss of Austin. Even with their first-round speedster healthy, the Rams were getting little production at wide receiver from anyone not named Brian Quick.

Receiver	Receptions	Yards	% of team pass yards
Brian Quick	14	173	37.1
Austin Pettis	3	46	9.9
Chris Givens	3	45	9.7
Tavon Austin	3	34	7.3
Kenny Britt	1	17	3.6

A chasm like that between one receiver and the rest is never ideal. But it’s tolerable if that receiver is, say, Calvin Johnson, A.J. Green or another similar talent. Quick is coming to life fast this season, and for what it’s worth this early, he’s on pace for 1,384 yards. He’s not on that level though, or close.

The Rams offense will continue to literally and figuratively run through Zac Stacy. But help for Quick is desperately needed when three of the team’s top four pass-catchers so far aren’t wide receivers and one is a running back.

Bailey returns after a promising preseason, and he can provide an instant injection of speed. Throughout August he hauled in six receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown. That comes after he started two of the Rams’ final four games last year and showed Tavon Austin-like versatility as a slot receiver. At the end of that stretch he had 149 receiving yards, along with 33 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

He showed that promise after dominating at West Virginia alongside Austin. In 2012, Bailey posted 1,622 receiving yards with 25 touchdowns. His name even popped up on campus this past weekend, because that’s what happens when you have a historically amazing afternoon.

Bailey can be moved around in Brian Schottenheimer's West Coast-leaning offense. But his size (5'10") makes him more ideally suited for a slot role, which will lead to opportunities for chunk gains after the catch on intermediate throws down the middle, where he's most effective. He'll be utilized there with Austin out, and when his former college teammate returns Bailey can slide outside with the speed to still be productive.

Training camp rants and raves led to Bailey being called the “most consistent wideout in camp” by ESPN’s Nick Wagoner, who also projected the 23-year-old will have a much larger role when he returns.

That time is now, and it begins with a soft landing against a still-weak Cowboys pass defense, though with Orlando Scandrick also returning that unit received its own shortened suspension gift.