Training Camp! Quick tour of LA Rams 7 key advantages

Healthy offensive line

The Rams are incredibly deep at offensive linemen this year, particularly those with starting experience from 2019. The Rams typically carry eight offensive linemen on their 53-man roster. Strange as it may seem, but the team has a healthy nine returning offensive linemen from 2019 who all saw starting action last season.  So the math already has the Rams outright releasing, or at a minimum assigning to the practice squad, a player who started games for them last season.

Of course, the Rams have already had two players on the offensive line test positive for COVID-19. Center Brian Allen was the first NFL player to test positive. He discovered that fact while rehabbing from last season’s injuries. He has since fully healed and recovered. Starting left tackle Andrew Whitworth was the other Rams’ offensive lineman who had contracted coronavirus earlier this season.

Gotta have Faith

The Rams rolled the dice this off-season. Rather than panicking and drafting multiple offensive linemen, the Rams placed faith in the healthy recovery of so many players injured last season, and in their offensive line coach Aaron Kromer. It was a calculated risk. The way the 2020 offseason turned out, there was almost no time to synch up the rookie offensive line with the rest of the roster.

And the only true rookie who “got away” was Michigan center Cesar Ruiz, who was was the 24th selection of the New Orleans Saints in the 2020 NFL Draft. Instead, the Rams opted to draft OT Tremayne Anchrum in the seventh round and signed up promising center Cohl Cabral after the 2020 NFL Draft concluded.  The competition at the offensive line will be fierce, with the outcome not only determining who earns the starting role but even who salvages a roster spot with the team at all.