6 surprise starters from LA Rams first depth chart

Offensive center

After he struggled in 2019 and had his season end with a vicious knee injury, many thought that Brian Allen would not be back. In fact, some even hoped that would prove to be the case, after his disappointing debut. But as we had stated previously, some of the best careers in the NFL were born out of the stubborn resistance to believe all that is said about the player.

When Allen fell off the radar for nearly two years, he didn’t wallow. In fact, he didn’t strive to get back to where he was. He got better, bigger, more powerful. Yes, he is still wearing a brace on his surgically reconstructed knee. But the truth of the matter is that placing him back into a starting role at center restores Austin Corbett to the starting right guard position.  As far as the right guard position, perhaps the Rams coaching staff go the memo. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.

Let’s call a spade a spade, however. The Rams wasted a lot of time, precious exchanges between Austin Corbett snapping the ball to Matthew Stafford. Did the coaches go too soon on their decision over who to start at the center? Yes is the only answer here folks. The tail wagged the dog, and I’m not convinced that it still isn’t. It is almost as though the coaches decided who plays where, and then runs all practices as though the players have earned the right to those starting positions. They haven’t.

For now, Brian Allen is the starting offensive center. But the revised depth chart is now Coleman Shelton as his backup. I would not be surprised if Shelton eventually takes over snapping the football this season. No matter how this all turns out, Brian Allen deserves a standing ovation for his work to get back to this point. Anything greater is purely icing on the cake.  But the objective is to set the best five offensive linemen onto the field and build chemistry. The coaches jumped far too quickly at moving Austin Corbett over to center. There is no reason to believe that those same coaches have suddenly gotten it right. In fact, much like a bad auto mechanic, it feels very much like the coaches will continue to swap parts until it all purrs once more.

This one feels like it isn’t over.