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

Okay, the LA Rams have six picks, don’t make their first selection until the 57th pick, and need an offensive center in the upcoming 2021 NFL Draft. That’s not a good situation.  Other NFL teams will be able to leap ahead of the Rams for a center no matter where the Rams pick. And make no mistake, right now the LA Rams have a neon sign flashing to the other 31 NFL teams that they are picking an offensive center. Now, when?

The trick is, that even NFL analysts who have been a rather uniform if not boring consensus are all over the board this year. A first-round prospect may find himself with a fourth-round grade elsewhere. And an offensive guard category who had no draft grade is suddenly projected to hear his name called upon in the second round of the draft.

Hey, don’t panic. There are plenty of prospects in the draft. In the 2021 NFL Draft, the Rams can have some level of confidence to find a center at each round of the draft. But pause a moment. A veteran rookie quarterback taking snaps from a rookie center? Well, that could pose a problem.

So now the LA Rams need a stand-in. Well, a veteran offensive center who can start for the Rams until the rookie is deemed worthy of starting at the position. Of course, the LA Rams still have Brian Allen on the roster. Allen was the starting center in 2019 and has rehabbed his way back into competing for a role on the offensive line this year.

Of course, there is Coleman Shelton as well, a player we have been bullish on and the LA Rams GM Les Snead continues to name as an option for the center position. Shelton has been on the team’s roster for a couple of years, and this could be the season where he finally gets a shot at playing time. But the team may need a wee bit more to ensure that they get it right for the 2021 NFL season. Signing a free agent center just before the draft will throw quite a few mock drafts out the window, and free up the Rams to have a wider field of vision

Option I

So the first place to start is the least expensive option. Let’s call this the sub-compact category because we’ve all rented a car at the airport, right? That turns the LA Rams towards a rather familiar adversary, former Arizona Cardinals offensive center A.Q. Shipley. He was a 2020 free agent who eventually signed on with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last season.

The 6-foot-1 307-pound offensive center is nearly Andrew Whitworth’s age but perhaps is not as spry as the Rams left offensive tackle. Still, he is a solid veteran who has been to the Super Bowl just last year, so there’s that.

He won’t knock down three defenders on any given play, and he likely won’t be the top offensive lineman at the end of the season. But he’s savvy and experienced and can read the defense. He recognizes what blitz packages he will face, and that alone will give the Rams offense a chance of success on any given play.

He’s good for spot starts. He can be counted on to put up a reputable month of September. No, he is not a bona fide 2021 starter. But the Rams can sign him up, throw him into the mix, and be more confident in the quality of play at the offensive center regardless of who they draft for the position.

Option II

Okay, now we are still in the sub-compact section of the rent-a-car menu, but former Dallas Cowboys offensive center Joe Looney can give the Rams a 16 game starter in case of emergency.  The Dallas Cowboys offensive line in 2020 struggled over a host of problems. Of course, Looney was not the solution, but he was not as bad as he was deemed to be responsible for.

The truth of the matter is that the Dallas Cowboys offense was built on the premise of passing the ball, and less focused upon pass rushers getting to the quarterback. Starting quarterback Dak Prescott learned the hard way about how that strategy can backfire.

Looney is a 6-foot-3 315-pound veteran who was originally drafted by the San Francisco 49ers with the 117th pick of the 2012 NFL Draft. Since that time, he has been both a reserve and starter in the NFL.  The most attractive quality about Looney is his price tag. The Rams should be able to land him for a minimal one-year deal.

In 764 offensive snaps, Looney allowed three quarterback sacks in 2020 and committed two penalties. While not reassuring, he was playing among a cast of characters who were in and out all season. Adding him may not be THE answer, but it does provide an answer until the Rams have a better option either from the draft of the existing roster.

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.

Option IV

Okay, we’re out of the sub-compact section and moving up into the mid-size category. Now we have a few of the bells and whistles, and a little more space to become a bit more comfortable. For this option, we’re looking at former San Francisco 49ers offensive center Ben Garland.

Garland has been a bit of a nomad, having played for the Denver Broncos, the Atlanta Falcons, and finally the rival San Francisco 49ers. He has been a spot starter in each of the last four NFL seasons, peaking with five NFL starts in 2020 for the 49ers.

The 6-foot-5 308-pound Garland was signed by the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2010. He made the rounds on their practice squad for a few seasons before getting promoted to the 53-man roster.  From that point on, he has been a solid backup who has seen action. But he has not been able to earn a starting spot.

That’s just fine for the Rams because that is exactly the role currently needing to be filled. Garland knows the NFC West well, has faced common opponents that the Rams face this year. And with his 49ers experience, he will have added insight and value by allowing the Rams to peer into their rival’s offensive game-planning against the Rams. Garland can give the Rams a solid first half to the 2021 NFL season, long enough for the Rams to develop his replacement.

Option V

From the moment that the LA Rams learned that center Austin Blythe was signing on with the Kansas City Chiefs, the LA Rams front office needed to call the agent for former Kansas City Chiefs offensive center Austin Reiter. After all, the Chiefs grabbed the Rams center, so why not return the favor?

Well, one of the reasons could be the prohibitive sticker price. The estimated annual contract price for Reiter is over $11 million per year. Considering that the Chiefs signed up Blythe for $990,000, there’s the reason for their decision. For a tenth of the price, the Chiefs signed up a center that was comparable.  So now the Rams must try a different strategy.

The Rams could toss an incentive-laden contract in front of Reiter, and give the contract voidable years to push some of the pain into 2022. That could get the Rams a solid offensive, the best available free agent currently on the market, for a doable price.

Reiter is a 6-foot-3 300-pound center who was drafted by the Washington Football team in the seventh round of the 2015 NFL Draft. While he struggled a bit in post-season, he has a treasure trove of irreplaceable NFL experience at starting in both the regular season and in post-season play. If the Rams could find the means to sign up Reiter, perhaps they won’t need to draft a center this year at all?