LA Rams: 3 available free agents to contribute immediately

Offensive center

The LA Rams need to address that gaping hole in the middle of their offensive line. At this point in the NFL Free Agency market, the best of the bunch have been signed. Now? It’s up to the Rams to find the diamond-in-the-rough who remains motivated but yet will sign to a team-friendly minimal contract.

One of the first offensive centers who are available and who could make an instant starting role with the LA Rams offensive line is former Detroit backup center, Russell Bodine.  He suffered a broken fibula in December 2018 and had successful surgery to repair the damage. Since that occurred, he has struggled to find a role on an NFL team over the past two years.

He was a four-year starting center for the Cincinnati Bengals. After his rookie contract, he signed on with the Buffalo Bills on a two-year deal.  Unfortunately, after 10 games with the Bills, he suffered the broken lower leg injury that derailed his 2019 season. Then, due to the 2020 COVID-19 rules, he has struggled to take up with a new NFL team.

Bodine is not All-Pro. But he is certainly an experienced NFL center who can anchor the Rams offensive line until younger players push him off the field with consistently better play. And with his absence, the Rams could land him with an inexpensive one-year prove-it deal that would not even be a starting point to negotiate a return of center Austin Blythe.