LA Rams: 3 reasons why the offensive line will be very good

The moment when the LA Rams finished their season in a road loss to the Green Bay Packers in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, the LA Rams proved that they were the most durable team of the very potent NFC West in 2020. But the transformation had already begun. Almost instantly, head coach Sean McVay made it very clear in coachspeak that he and Jared Goff were no longer on the same page.  But that was only one of any number of significant changes to the 2021 roster.

If there is a single theme to the roster changes, perhaps you could tie it all together with the blanket statement that the LA Rams good enough in 2020 is no longer good enough in 2021. After all, Jared Goff was good enough to lead the LA Rams to a 43-21 record, and to a 3-3 record in the NFL Playoffs, but that isn’t good enough for 2021.

And so that same theme can be used to oversee any number of personnel changes that occurred during the offseason.  While it does not apply universally (I don’t think it’s a reason for the Rams to allow safety John Johnson to sign on elsewhere via the free agency market), I think it could explain a number of defections.

Josh Reynolds, Gerald Everett, and even Troy Hill could fall into that ‘good enough in 2020’ category, but they all moved on to new teams and new opportunities. So too did the LA Rams extend a low-ball offer to veteran offensive lineman Austin Blythe, perhaps in the belief that no team would outbid their offer, or perhaps that is the maximum that they believe him to be worth.

In either case, the take-it-or-leave-it method didn’t work in this case. Even moreso, just because Blythe’s willingness to jump ship and sign on with the Kansas City Chiefs was the first indication of the Rams offensive line strategy to the fans, it was quite clear that the team had already decided Blythe’s fate weeks earlier. Just like Jared Goff, Blythe’s good enough was no longer good enough. While the fans and analysts attempted to make sense of it all, the Rams matter-of-factly deployed their plan. New offensive line coach Kevin Carberry would lead a new configuration for 2021.