Did the LA Rams draft Logan Bruss to replace David Edwards in 2023?

As I’ve been sizing up the LA Rams roster, training camp battles, and the overall historic strategy employed by this team, there is simply something that does not add up. After all, we can learn as much about the team in the early months of a new roster by examining past practices. Whatever the team did in previous seasons can be as indicative of what the team plans to do this season as anything else right?

So in light of what the team has done in the past, the drafting of rookie offensive lineman Logan Bruss to replace just departed offensive guard Austin Corbett just does not feel correct. After all, there are a number of hiccups with that strategy, not the least of which is the simple matter of whether or not a rookie can learn how to start in the NFL with that as the presumed expectation.

The LA Rams do not start a young player before he has proven he is up to the challenge.

And so, the presumption that Logan Bruss is a start now or bust prospect runs against the grain of everything that I love about the way the LA Rams have built this roster. What if the goal for selecting Bruss was not to replace Corbett, who was already addressed by the re-signing of Coleman Shelton? What if Bruss was added to the roster to replace projected 2023 free agent and current starting left guard David Edwards?

Logan Bruss for David Edwards?

Now it all seems to make more sense. If Bruss is slotted to take over for Edwards at left guard in 2023, then the Rams will have swapped out four of five starting offensive linemen. In the process, the team plans to convert the veteran leadership of the unit from Andrew Whitworth to Rob Havenstein.

Some have already begun to comment that a season spent on the bench by rookie Logan Bruss means that the young man indicates that he is a bust. Really? A player who was selected with the 104th pick in the 2022 NFL Draft is a bust in his first NFL season? If you truly believe that, then you have not been paying attention to how the LA Rams have been so successful for so long (see link below).

Bruss is a collegiate offensive tackle who is learning how to play inside at the NFL offensive guard position, much like many of the team’s offensive linemen. Rookies, at any position, have a learning curve that is a natural path of successes and failures. If the Rams are to protect veteran quarterback Matthew Stafford, then I want that five-man offensive line to boast the five best offensive linemen on the roster.  If Logan Bruss is the sixth-best offensive lineman, that is no shame on him.

There will be plenty of opportunities throughout the season, as well as next season. He will be a superb NFL player, as long as the LA Rams remain patient.