LA Rams made these 7 ‘right calls’ over the offensive line

VI – Get healthy

The injury report throughout the 2019 season for the LA Rams was heartbreaking. The Rams seemed to take one step forward and three steps backward each week. Ultimately, the Rams rushed to sign offensive linemen, rushed to promote offensive linemen, and suffered so many rapidly changing starters that the offense seemed to be locked into a pattern of duct tape and pass blocking.

The reactionary organization would have panicked as so many injuries. The result would be overcompensating a roster hard hit by injuries in 2019 by overloading the roster in 2020.  In fact, the Rams are carrying a significant number of offensive lineman on the active roster in 2020, 10 to be exact. And the team has additional players on the practice squad to be called up just in case.  So far, the Rams have only suffered a temporary loss of left guard Joseph Noteboom to a calf injury.

Kromer knows O-line

Trusting a battered 2019 offensive line to get healthy required a lot of analysis and strong willpower. Nobody would have blamed the LA Rams for leaning heavily into signing offensive linemen from free agency. In fact, the added risks of COVID-19 to the players in the trenches gave the team more justification to shop for offensive linemen.

But the LA Rams offensive line coach Aaron Kromer is one of the NFL’s best for good reason. As he reviewed various prospects available to the team via the draft, he was content that the Rams current players offered more in talent and ceiling than anyone he could have obtained in the draft.  In fact, it was not until the seventh round that the Rams drafted Tremayne Anchrum. The Rams only signed one offensive lineman after the draft, despite a number of highly respected prospects falling out of the draft.