5 NFL FA centers for the LA Rams to keep an eye on

Option III

We’re still in the sub-compact section, as the available offensive centers have been scooped up rather handily. But rather than consider another senior NFL veteran whose career has crested the hill and is now not quite as good as it once was, we turn towards a young and as yet underdeveloped NFL offensive center in Will Clapp.

Clapp is a 24-year-old offensive center who was drafted by the New Orleans Saints with the 245th pick of the 2018 NFL Draft. While he hasn’t quite broken through to earn a starting role for the Saints (they’ve had a series of good centers), he did earn three starts as a fill-in for 2019. His performance was modest, but not horrific. Throughout his career, he has started four NFL games and handled 479 offensive snaps over the past three years.

A former LSU Tiger, the 6-foot-5 311-pound offensive lineman has enough experience in all three interior lineman roles to play a versatile and worthwhile addition to the Rams roster. Historically, the Rams have drafted offensive tackles and then cross-trained them to play inside. Clapp is an interior offensive lineman by design, and his starting experience at the offensive center is worth a shot.

The Rams may need to draft a center in the 2021 NFL Draft, but if they can dampen the urgency to be calling out a center’s name with their first pick, that will help their overall draft. Clapp is a young player who is still developing and has been an NFL starter. He’ll actually come to the Rams cheaper than a drafted rookie. So the Rams should give him an audition.