LA Rams boast 5 players ripe for Pro Bowl seasons

OG Edwards

The LA Rams offensive line was about as an unlucky group of professional football players in the NFL in 2019. The squad ran through how many players last season? Including the five starters who ended the season, the team had nine starters in various combinations in 2019.  Of the nine, five had either post-season surgery, significant injuries, or both.  That’s a difficult way to play a football season.

But it’s a good way to find future stars for the team. Trial by fire, throwing young offensive linemen out into NFL games and observing which players perform well, tread water, or simply collapse under the pressure.  Right offensive guard David Edwards performed very well. Let’s pause and frame that performance for a moment. Edwards was drafted as an offensive tackle. He trained as an offensive lineman. But he started as an offensive guard for the Rams, and he did an admirable job.

Focus on proficiency

Now he has benefitted from an entire season of zeroing in on one offensive line position, he needn’t try to study the plays and scripts of all positions on the offensive line. The other four positions may or may not be up for grabs, but the right guard position is all about David Edwards this season. It’s a well-deserved promotion over last year’s status. But that’s only the beginning for Edwards in 2020.  After all, the coaching staff won’t place the offensive linemen in overmatched situations this season, which will allow Edwards to grow exponentially this season.

The weakest link in the LA Rams offense was the center position and the two gaps to either side of the center.  That weak spot proved to be difficult to fix last season, most likely due to the stream of new players starting in any given week. But the Rams will fix that weakness in 2020, which will give Edwards a much better opportunity to improve his run blocking and blitz pickups. And the scare of ranking as only the 31st offensive line in the NFL has pushed all linemen to work even harder for this year. The Rams recorded some good chemistry with starters Andrew Whitworth, Austin Corbett, Austin Blythe, David Edwards, and Bobby Evans to finish off 2019.  While the competition between veteran Rob Havenstein and second-year player Evans may be a photo finish, the Rams will likely start 2020 where 2019 left off. That is ideal for Edwards.