5 LA Rams offseason moves worse than extending Floyd over JJIII

III: No kidding, no rookie center?

After the LA Rams were unable to resign veteran offensive center, Austin Blythe, many simply expected the team to target one of the major offensive center prospects in the 2021 NFL Draft. Not drafting an offensive center was one of the biggest surprises in the post-draft assessment of the team’s performance.

The talk of the town for the 2021 NFL Draft was offensive center Quinn Meinerz, the young prospect who trained like a lumberjack on workout videos leading up to the draft. But the LA Rams love the senior bowl, and the rookie who stole the show was Oklahoma offensive center, Creed Humphrey. Ironically, he followed the same route as Austin Blythe and was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs with the 63rd overall pick. He is their project starting center, and the word is that he is very very good.

Yes, the LA Rams picked at 53. No, the LA Rams did not select a center at 57. In fact, the LA Rams did not draft a single offensive lineman in the 2021 NFL Draft. We were of another mindset. Google search Ramblin Fan Creed Humphrey and ten articles appear in the search. Sure there were other prospects available. But the fact that Jim Nagy loved Creed Humphrey was enough for us.

Did we mention that he’s beaten out Austin Blythe to be the Chiefs starting center? While the Rams are backing Brian Allen for the 2021 NFL season and maybe correct for doing so, Allen is on the last year of his contract. For that matter, so is right guard Austin Corbett. If Andrew Whitworth retires at the end of this season, that creates three offensive line positions in need of focused attention.  Drafting Creed Humphrey would have answered a ton of questions in 2021, and solved a number of roster challenges going forward.