LOS ANGELES — Robert Woods couldn’t keep a straight face. Once the word “Yarbs” entered the conversation, he began beaming.
“Yarbs is a fiery guy,” said Woods of Eric Yarber, his receivers coach through his five seasons in Los Angeles. Yarber takes the practice fields the same way each day: with a sprint. He often coaches with a toothpick in his mouth, instructing Rams receivers on technical details in one breath and shouting praise and encouragement in another. He throws on pencil pads and even chest pads to work with and against his players, or simply to absorb the hits from the blocks that are so important to Rams receivers’ résumés. His energy is always consistent. His guys love him for it, and it shows.
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“Hands-on is a great way (to describe him), passionate,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said Wednesday. He was initially told about Yarber by defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, a longtime friend of McVay’s, as he began to assemble a coaching staff following his hiring in 2017. McVay and general manager Les Snead were planning to overhaul the receivers on the roster that offseason, and that included signing Woods and Sammy Watkins, and drafting Cooper Kupp. Last year, McVay mentioned he was immediately drawn to Yarber’s “aura.” Five years and two Super Bowl runs later, even as over a dozen assistant coaches have come and gone, Yarber has been a stabilizing force within McVay’s offense.
Yarber’s energy, ability as a teacher and his consistency were necessities in a season that often looked pretty on the outside, but wasn’t without its adversity.
Though the Rams offense featured Kupp, who led the league in catches (145), receiving yards (1,947) and receiving touchdowns (16), it also featured enormous change after Woods suffered a torn ACL in November, just a day after the team agreed to terms with veteran receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
The team reeled from the loss. Woods, like Kupp, is a cornerstone piece in the offense — in the passing game as well as the run game, where the receivers’ physicality is most highlighted. They block defensive backs, sure, but they also block linebackers and defensive ends, and in doing so, unlock many of the concepts the Rams like to use. Prior to Woods’ injury, McVay, at times, deployed Kupp and Woods as though they were miniature tight ends, inspiring jokes that instead of his signature 11 personnel concepts, he was actually running something in between 11 and 12 personnel — “11.5 personnel.”
But Beckham, who after first joining the team listed Yarber as a reason he wanted to come to Los Angeles, made it clear to him that he would do whatever it took to try to fill some of the void that Woods’ absence created. In every team meeting since he arrived, Beckham has sat next to Yarber and constantly picked his brain and asked for coaching.
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“I knew that he was a hell of a player,” Yarber said. “He does sit next to me in meetings. He’s taking notes, he’s bright-eyed. He’s always asking questions — sometimes I gotta stop him from asking questions because Sean is talking, I’m like, ‘Hold that until he’s finished!’ He’s a pleasure to coach.”
Beckham scored six touchdowns in his first nine games with the Rams. But his comfort level within the offense, although fast-tracked by necessity, was most apparent in the Rams’ NFC Championship Game win over the 49ers, in which Beckham caught nine passes for 113 yards (the first time he had 100 or more yards since October 2019).
Rams receivers are asked to do a lot. Yarber set the standard for their physicality and technique in 2017, and that has carried forward. Current and former players say he teaches his receivers releases and leverage moves similarly to how defensive line coach Eric Henderson teaches his players hand-fighting and shedding techniques.
“Seeing (star defensive tackle) Aaron Donald work is like, ‘Damn, we’re kind of doing the same things,'” said Woods, laughing. “Yarbs is putting on these hand-fighting (pads) when we’re doing our releases. I would say it’s similar, it’s hand-fighting. You gotta pick a side, you move a guy. Really, it gets combative. He’s definitely taken some licks from all of us.
“But I feel like that’s what you get out of a great coach. He wants to get involved, he wants to put his hands on (you), he wants to teach you by example.”
Kupp made dozens of highlight-reel catches throughout the 2021 season, but the photo Yarber has blown up in high-definition and hanging on his office wall is of Kupp throwing a nasty stiff-arm for a pickup of just a few yards against Indianapolis in Week 2. He’s known around the Rams’ facility for certain “Yarberisms,” which are said with a grin to mask their brutal underlying meaning.
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“‘You can’t live forever,'” Kupp said in 2020, describing Yarber’s phrase for a catch across the middle and through heavy traffic. And, though other teams certainly use this phrase, the “for the love of the game” route — the route a receiver runs who is definitely not getting the ball but needs to sell a decoy pattern — is a “Yarberism” in the Rams’ building. It was fitting that the route Kupp ran to catch the 44-yard pass from quarterback Matthew Stafford in the divisional round that set up a game-winning field goal was exactly that type of route, except this time Kupp was the target. As the team celebrated, nobody was happier for Kupp than Yarber.
“I think that’s why you’ve seen such a special dynamic in our receiver room since he’s been leading the way,” McVay said. “He does a great job of helping those guys reach their highest potential … but he loves them. Pours everything into them. He’s got a great mastery of this game. … He’s got such a positive zest.
“I told him, ‘As long as I’m fortunate enough to be in this role, as long as you still want to be working with receivers, you’re stuck with me as long as I’m lucky enough to be in this spot.’ I love him so much and I’m so grateful for Eric Yarber. He’s been outstanding.”
Notables
• McVay’s voice was hoarse during his virtual news conference Wednesday and at one point, he popped a cough drop in his mouth. Earlier this week, he wondered whether he’d lose his voice from shouting over the high winds in Thousand Oaks, Calif., where the team is practicing this week. High winds are again expected Thursday so the Rams will practice in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.
“I feel great,” McVay said, “I just sound like shit.”
• The Rams held a walk-through/jog-through instead of a full practice Wednesday, and McVay said that the only players who would be listed as “did not practice” if it were a full session are tight end Tyler Higbee (knee) and Joe Noteboom (chest). McVay said earlier in the week that both players are likely to remain day to day through the rest of this week.
• According to NFC pool reporter Jarrett Bell (USA Today), McVay believes running back Darrell Henderson will be able to play in Sunday’s game. Henderson is in the return-to-roster window off of injured reserve, after suffering a knee injury late in the season. It’s not yet clear how large a role he’ll be able to play, but with Henderson, the Rams will have all three running backs who took meaningful snaps this season/postseason available against the Bengals.
(Photo of Eric Yarber and Odell Beckham Jr.: Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)
