The Rams’ wide receiver who led the league in longest reception last season, with an 88-yard touchdown catch, is set to leave Los Angeles. As the Super Bowl champion departs to join a new team, Matthew Stafford’s wife, Kelly Stafford, posted a heartfelt goodbye to the veteran pass-catcher.

“One of the favs of my family, including my daughters…You will be missed, but so happy you’re going home ©tutuatwell,” Kelly Stafford wrote in a parting message on her Instagram story.

Wide receiver Tutu Atwell had signed a one-year, $10 million contract extension with the Rams in March last year, but that deal came to an end with the 2025 season. He is now set to join the Dolphins. His departure means the Stafford household will no longer see him on the sidelines on game days, and that is when the family will truly feel his absence.

Kelly and Matthew Stafford have four daughters: twins Sawyer and Chandler, Hunter, and Tyler. As the girls have grown older, they have developed a genuine love for football. They attended most of Matthew’s home games last season, and Kelly made sure they did not miss the away games either. She even gave the travel tradition its own name: the Stafford Sisters Stadium Series.

The sisters were certainly watching when Atwell had his most memorable moment in a Rams uniform in Week 4 last season against the Colts. Tied at 20-20 with only two minutes left in the game, Atwell caught a deep pass from Matthew Stafford, made from the Rams’ 12-yard line. Beating his defender down the sideline, he sprinted into the end zone for an 88-yard touchdown, which led the Rams to a 27-20 win. 

The play was later recognized as the longest go-ahead touchdown in the final two minutes of a game in the 21st century. But beyond that one explosive play, Atwell rarely had the opportunity to shine in Los Angeles. 

Since the Rams selected him 57th overall in the 2021 draft, he has spent most of his career as a backup. It was largely because head coach Sean McVay already had a loaded group of pass-catchers ahead of him. 

The Rams opened with Cooper Kupp and Van Jefferson as starters in 2021 and were later joined by Puka Nacua and Davante Adams. Hence, Atwell simply could not find a consistent role in a room that deep.

In five seasons with the Rams, Atwell started just 27 of the 64 regular-season games he appeared in. His career numbers with Los Angeles stand at 105 receptions for 1,535 yards and five touchdowns. 

The only stretch where he played a more prominent role came in the 2023 season, when Kupp’s hamstring injury opened the door for more snaps. Outside of that window, Atwell spent most of his time waiting on the sideline. Now, that wait is over. And the road leads him back to where it all began.

Tutu Atwell returns to where it all began

Tutu Atwell entered this offseason as a free agent, and it did not take long for him to find a new home. He has agreed to a one-year deal with the Dolphins. And for Atwell, this is homecoming. The wide receiver was born in Miami, Florida, in 1999, and played three seasons of college football at the University of Louisville in the ACC.

His most dominant college season came in 2019, when he posted 70 receptions for a conference-leading 1,276 yards and 12 touchdowns for the Cardinals. He finished that campaign as the ACC’s top receiver and capped it off by helping Louisville defeat Mississippi State 38-28 in the Music City Bowl. 

Now, Atwell joins Miami, a franchise that has been on the hunt for a wide receiver since they let  Tyreek Hill go last month due to limited cap space. Atwell’s speed and potential to make big plays make him a natural fit to help fill the void left behind by Hill. For a player who spent five years patiently waiting to make a mark in Los Angeles, Miami may finally be the place where Tutu Atwell gets to show what he is really capable of.