LA Rams: Are Jackson, Pircher, and Meredith unsung heroes of 2021 Draft?

Kevin Carberry, OL coach, and miracle worker

The LA Rams have even more pressure than ever on the performance of the offensive. Despite the need to get top performance out of the offensive line, the LA Rams continue to be quite frugal when it comes to paying for top-shelf production. So the LA Rams haven’t invested draft picks, free agents, or even cap dollars into the group?  That’s going to create a challenge?  Well, not for the moment.

But for all intents and purposes, the next depth chart illustrates the level of concerns for this team. What do we mean? Let’s show you:

Position                            Starter                                 Backup
Left tackle                        TBD                                      TBD
Left guard                         Bobby Evans                     Jamil Demby
Center                                TBD                                     TBD
Right guard                      David Edwards                 TBD
Right tackle                      Rob Havenstein               Tremayne Anchrum

Practice squad:  AJ Jackson, Max Pircher, Jordan Meredith

Wow. That looks more like swiss cheese than a depth chart for the offensive line of a Super Bowl contender.  And that is what the LA Rams have set up for the debut for offensive line coach Kevin Carberry.   Does that look like a rather bare cupboard, and all in the span of one season?  Wow.  I suppose that LA Rams head coach Sean McVay truly has a lot of faith and confidence in his newly hired coach.

But unless the guy walks on water, and perhaps even if he does, this offensive line will need players to coach up, to develop, to train, to drill. Sure, the Rams could solve some of the problems by retaining some vacating players. But the funds are not readily available. In fact, even with a substantial increase projected for the 2022 NFL salary cap increase, the Rams still are slated to be over by several million. Re-signing veteran players, as well as adding new rookies from the 2022 NFL Draft, will all need money. So let’s approach this problem from a different angle right now.