Should the St Louis Rams target Stefen Wisniewski in free agency?

With free agency now less than 24 hours away, the offensive line remains one of the biggest areas of need for the St Louis Rams. While (quite rightly) much has been written of the need to retain some the key players from last season, most notably Kenny Britt and Joe Barksdale, the Rams can plug in a very important missing piece in the form of current Oakland Raiders center, Stefen Wisniewski.

For starters, at age 25 Wisniewski has plenty of good years left in him. Compare this to Rams current center, Scott Wells. At 34, Wells’ best years are clearly behind him. In his day, Wells was worthy of a starting spot in a top tier Green Bay offence, and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2011.

Unfortunately, the trend has been downhill ever since. In 2014 Wells graded rock bottom of 41 centers in the league according to Pro Football Focus at -29.7. The Rams need to move on.

Despite a slightly negative overall PFF grading last year at -2.5, Wisniewski’s form was still good. His grading was punished in both the Raiders fixtures against the Denver Broncos. Take those two games out of the equation and he ends up at +5.2.

He has also managed to stay healthy, participating in every offensive snap in 15 out of 16 games – the one game where he missed a handful of plays being (you guessed it) the Raiders 52-0 thrashing by the Rams in week 13. Wisniewski did not miss a single snap in 2013 or 2012. Fair to say that he is reliable.

Next, there will be a degree of familiarity with the opponents. With the Oakland Raiders, Wisniewski faced every team in the NFC West last season – as well as the Cleveland Browns who are also on the Rams schedule in 2015. In other words, seven of the sixteen fixtures for St Louis will be against a team Wisniewski faced in the recent past. Not bad for a player from outside of the Conference.

There is also the salary cap situation to consider. This weekend it was reported that the Oakland Raiders are to pay big money for Rodney Hudson to bring him from divisional rivals Kansas City.

According to Spotrac, in 2014 Wisniewski cost just over $1.3million against the cap for Oakland. This compared to Scott Wells, who cost St Louis $4.3million. Cutting Wells altogether would cost $1million in dead cap space as opposed to the $4.75million needed to keep him on the roster through 2015 which is currently the 9^th highest in the league for a center – and surely a massive overvaluation based on recent production.

Center is by no means the most glamorous position on the field – but it is a vital piece of the puzzle, particularly with quarterback Sam Bradford returning from a second ACL tear in a division with some very tough defences.

It is extremely unlikely that Jeff Fisher and Les Snead will take a center with one of the top draft picks, and anyone taken in the lower rounds in unlikely to be an instant starter. With the current position holder no longer able to perform at the top level and the solution not forthcoming through the draft, that only leaves free agency for the Rams to bring in a new center. Wisniewski could be just the man for the job.