If I had my way with that OLine, and other LA Rams thoughts

There are plenty of cliche phrases that begin with the “If I had…” phrase. Typically, it is a repeated phrase that would make the listener rich if it were some form of coin or currency. But it was also a key phrase to a very popular song that I now can’t get of my head because I mentioned its name for the opening of this article (Oh, the sacrifices I must make).  The song was If I Had a Hammer, as performed by the folksy 60s group Peter, Paul, and Mary.

“If I had a hammer
I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening
All over this land “- Per the song lyrics of  If I Had a Hammer by Peter Paul and Mary.

Well, I don’t have a hammer. I don’t have a bell. And I don’t have a song. Surprised? I’m not.  But I do have some thoughts, a bit of observation that is now fueled by a growing bit of evidence on the football practice field, and the belief that perhaps the LA Rams have gotten it wrong on the offensive line yet again.

This is a complex, very fluid, and rapidly changing matter. The players are all fighting, with varying levels of intensity, all of which has shifted the direction that the LA Rams coaches lean on any given week, day, and even hour.

The challenge for the LA Rams has been, is, and will be the starting point of their presumptions about the offensive line. The presumption was that the offensive line’s primary responsibility was protecting the quarterback and that has dictated seeding the offensive line with big offensive tackle type players. Well, the original configuration of the LA Rams offensive line out of training camp was Andrew Whitworth, David Edwards, Austin Corbett, Bobby Evans, and Rob Haventstein.

It was the early reports out of the Rams organization before OTAs that defined that configuration out of four possible configurations that we presented after the 2021 NFL Draft.  But the option that the coaches decided upon changed two positions, not just one. That decision created a vortex of events that has delivered a rather complex path for the LA Rams coaching staff to deliver the optimal offensive line for the team.