National Football League

WR Lloyd may jumpstart Rams offense

Published Oct. 21, 2011 5:38 a.m. ET

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In obtaining veteran wide receiver Brandon Lloyd, the St. Louis Rams have added a pair of sure hands to a bunch that has been plagued by dropped passes this season and an offense than barely scores.

The winless Rams (0-5) are underdogs for Sunday's game at Dallas (2-3) and likely to be one at home the following week against New Orleans.

The offense under new coordinator Josh McDaniels has yet to click but the Rams now have Lloyd following a trade with Denver. The hope is that he can jumpstart an offense that has scored an NFL-worst 49 points this season and one that was held to a field goal by Green Bay last weekend despite gaining 424 yards.

''We've made some progress with certain things that we were doing, but whenever you put yourself in an opportunity to score, we're learning that one mistake is enough,'' McDaniels said Thursday. ''There's no excuses for it. We've got to eliminate our mistakes. It's really about us.

The 6-foot, 190-pound Lloyd brings instant credibility the Rams' receiver corps. Lloyd, a Blue Springs, Mo., native and graduate of Illinois, had a league-leading 1,448 yards receiving last year. He averaged a robust 18.8 yards per catch and scored 11 touchdowns.

''Just as a professional athlete, I think our pride would like to be stroked that way where we feel like that,'' Lloyd said. ''I think that this is a really good football team and it doesn't reflect it in the record. If it takes that, I'm prepared for it. I'm prepared to be that. I'm going to prepare myself and be as healthy as possible going into these games ready to rock and roll.''

St. Louis thought it needed him. The Rams surrendered a conditional sixth-round pick in the 2012 draft for Lloyd, a pick that can become a fifth-rounder if Lloyd catches 30 passes for the Rams. His contract is up at the end of the season.

The move reunites Lloyd with McDaniels, whom the Rams hired after Pat Shurmur left to go to Cleveland to become the head coach. The opening enabled the Rams to hire McDaniels and give him a chance to resurrect this career, which included a praised stint as New England's offensive coordinator and a bad run as the Broncos' head coach.

''We've been able to move the ball up and down,'' quarterback Sam Bradford said, ''but we just have so many mistakes, it doesn't allow us to put the ball in the end zone. We've got to find a way to score touchdowns. The way we've played at times has been positive. We understand we can do that and there's no reason, if we keep working, we can't do that in the red zone, that we can't score touchdowns.''

It has not gone well so far. St. Louis ranks No. 25 overall offensively, and penalties and dropped passes have plagued the Rams all season.

''I am encouraged by the fact that he knows exactly what he is doing,'' Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo said. ''Him and Josh knocked out a lot of stuff. He went out there and made a number of catches here in practice. I am hopeful that he will be able to step in and won't skip a beat. That is my hope.''

Notes: Bradford (ankle) did not practice along with CB Brian Jackson (knee) and DE C.J. Ah You (wrist) ... S Quintin Mikell missed practice as his wife gave birth Thursday morning.