LA Rams: Please stop placing square OT Bobby Evans into a round OG slot

I don’t stand in meeting rooms. I don’t sit next to the coaches as they go over game videos. I don’t even stand on the practice field with a whistle around my neck leading or evaluating drills or exercises. And yet, each and every time I see Bobby Evans trying to place his square offensive tackle form and technique into a round offensive guard slot, I wonder why? After all, I see the guy struggling at offensive guard. He struggled there in 2020. He is still struggling there.

I know that the right of passage for the LA Rams has been for collegiate offensive tackles to move to the guard spot, handle the chaos that is the world of an interior offensive lineman, and then move outside to the tackle spot if and when the need arises.

Intermission:
(Singing around a campfire) Kumbaya, m’Lord, Kumbaya.
(Narrator’s voice): Now let’s tell more stories about what we do without understanding why we do it.
End Intermission:

That strategy simply does not appear to work in the case of Bobby Evans. He is an offensive tackle by trade. He was brought through the college ranks as an offensive tackle. He simply quacks like an offensive tackle and waddles like an offensive tackle. So why insist that he is an offensive guard? If you can answer that one, you are a wiser person than I am.

Los Angeles Rams

I’m not here to cast stones at the young man. He is a hard worker. As a rookie, he slid into the right tackle slot and held his own.  Then 2020 happened, and offensive lineman Bobby Evans found himself demoted into a player without a spot. Suddenly, the guy who gave the LA Rams some mini heroics was begging for a position to play. He never got to compete at the right tackle spot. And so, he cross-trained as an offensive guard. Only he’s not an offensive guard.

It was plain to see in the NFL Playoffs against the Green Bay Packers. Rather than return Joseph Noteboom (who started the season at left guard) for the injured David Edwards, Bobby Evans was given the assignment.  And he struggled at left guard.

If you needed confirmation? Against the Las Vegas Raiders, Bobby Evans struggled mightily at right guard. I think that’s a bit kind-hearted, but let’s go with that phrasing. The reason this is important is that the offensive line, much like a defensive secondary, is one of the most co-dependant units on the football field. If one player struggles, they all look bad. Right now, offensive tackle Bobby Evans struggles at offensive guard, period.

Will the Rams stop trialing him at guard? Probably not. He may not make the team this year, and that’s disappointing. Bobby Evans is staying late. He is trying his damnedest to perform at the offensive guard position if nothing more than the fact that the Rams have so many interior offensive linemen on the last year of their contracts.

But he is an offensive tackle, plain and simple. If the LA Rams cannot offer him the opportunity to remain at that position, then they should trade him to an NFL team that can.