LA Rams newest offensive lineman Max Pircher is not just a camp body

From the moment that the LA Rams failed to re-sign offensive center Austin Blythe, the unofficial social media shopping list for football positions to add to the cart during the offseason has not only included offensive linemen, but it has prioritized it. Perhaps no other position for the LA Rams gets as little true respect from fans as the offensive line.

But are the LA Rams in dire need of new blood on the offensive line to start the season? I mean, by the end of the NFL season, and heading into the playoffs, the Rams had lost Joseph Noteboom, Andrew Whitworth, and David Edwards. For the playoffs, Edwards was out and Evans was promoted to left guard, Whitworth was starting despite playing at 60-70 percent. And that was what the LA Rams fielded to enter the playoffs.

So how well did the LA Rams line perform? Most memories that flood the comments section seem to focus upon the Green Bay Packers game and cites that one of 18 games as the norm.  Let’s look at what the story is by checking out the facts at footbaldb.com.

Of course, I could really impress you (or bore you to tears) if I broke into the data at Pro Football Refercence.com and discussed how the LA Rams were 11th best at total quarterback pressure, Or how the LA Rams were 11th best in the NFL at rushing yards before contact, the truest indication of an effective running game. But to be honest, if you think that the LA Rams offensive line was bad in 2020, facts like these won’t change your mind.

Not as bad as you might think

Just to be clear, players on the offensive line do not score points, help make catches, handle the football, nor throw accurate and timely passes.  The Rams offensive line in any given year contributes to rushing yards, the number of quarterback sacks, and yards gained. The 2020 LA Rams offensive line allowed the sixth-fewest number of quarterback sacks in the NFL.

Los Angeles Rams

The same Rams offensive line even moved defenses well enough to get the tenth-most rushing yards in the NFL, without a single rushing putting up 700+ rushing yards. Let’s be realistic. The LA Rams rushing trio of Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, and Malcolm Brown was simply not very intimidating to NFL defenses.

Finally, the same offensive line allowed the Rams to gain the 11th most offensive yards in the NFL and the 11th most rushing touchdowns. The top offensive line in the NFL? Perhaps not. But the LA Rams put their financial backing into other positions.

Even the Rams roster has been less challenged than you might think initially. While the Rams have indeed lost a starting offensive center to free agency, the team welcomes back a young offensive lineman who the team has been high on for several years.  Austin Blythe, out. Chandler Brewer, in. Did the talent level drop significantly in the process? In the eyes of the coaching staff and personnel department? Perhaps not as much as in the eyes of fans.

2022 free agency

That won’t be the case for 2022. Next year, the LA Rams have five of their offensive linemen who face expired contracts. Those players are Joseph Noteboom, Austin Corbett, Coleman Shelton, Brian Allen, and Chandler Brewer.  Surely the Rams will re-sign them, right? Well, according to the latest financial projects, money will be incredibly tight in 2022 for the team.

Will that mean that the team will be willing to lose two starting offensive linemen in one offseason?  While the answer to that question is blowing in the wind, the situation will be far less complicated if the team has a stable of young offensive linemen who coaches are confident can step up next year. To have enough players who fit that description next year, the Rams need those players in the pipeline now.

One such ‘player of the future’ is 6-foot-7 300-pound Italian offensive lineman Maximillian Pircher. As we noted previously, Pircher is one of four international players who have been assigned to NFC West teams for the 2021 NFL season. It’s all part of a program that the NFL calls their International Player Pathway Program and assigns international players of American football (as opposed to football which is the American sport of soccer) to a host team where they will be given an opportunity to learn and compete with players from that team.

if you want to learn more about the IPPP or a bit of background about Max Pircher, you can get a good background understanding by checking out this article here. For our purposes, it’s enough to know that the LA Rams have a fairly raw offensive lineman on the current roster. Now, let’s pivot a moment and lay out what Pircher brings to the LA Rams roster.

The new kid in town

Maximilian Pircher is understandably a bit awestruck. After all, he is in a foreign country, training with an NFL team, in a new city, facing a new language and culture. To say that he has a lot to absorb in a little bit of time is certainly a massive understatement.

But the two keys are motivation and coachability. Motivation-wise, I don’t think that there is any question that Maximilian Pircher is motivated. He is simply a young man living his dream.  From the moment he steps foot onto the football field, he is energized, ready-to-go, and hyped up to play.  Now, can the LA Rams coaching staff, and specifically the debuting offensive line coach, Kevin Carberry, get him coached up?

Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Thankfully, neither will Maximilian Pircher’s NFL career. A young man who needs an investment of time and coaching should not be expected to be starting in 2021. But he will learn. He will grow. He will get stronger, wiser, more durable. And most of all, he will train against Aaron Donald, Sebastian Joseph Day, and A’Shawn Robinson.

How will it all turn out? Well, I suspect that Max Pircher is more than just a camp body. Yes, I get that he was assigned to the LA Rams. Yes, I understand that he is a free roster spot for the Rams to carry him on the practice squad. But the fact is that the Rams will need help on the offensive line in 2022, offensive line coach Kevin Carberry is new to the staff, which means that the LA Rams will exhibit every valid reason to develop Pircher this year.

Pircher will likely be carried on the Rams practice squad in 2021, and due to the restriction of the program, there is where he will likely remain. But he becomes a chess piece as the LA Rams begin to focus upon the 2022 NFL roster. Whether he will remain a practice squad player, or compete for a 53-man roster spot, will be determined in training camp this year.