You’ll never guess why the LA Rams are hiring this important coach . . .

The LA Rams know that the success of their offense, and of the team, is how well this team competes in the trenches. And the Rams also know that the battle in those trenches was lost more often than not through the course of the 2022 NFL season. All of that combines to make the next offensive line coach hired by the LA Rams quite important.  And the search is over now.

The LA Rams will place their trust for the 2023 NFL season and beyond in Buffalo Bills’ assistant offensive line coach Ryan Wendell. Now the question is: Why him?

If you had your heart set on a seasoned NFL coach with a long and storied career, you will be deeply disappointed with this hire.  Ryan Wendall is a very young assistant offensive line coach in terms of NFL experience, serving on the Buffalo Bills staff for the past four seasons. Over that span, he was the Assistant OL Coach since 2020, years in which the Buffalo Bills offensive line ranked 10th (2020), 17th (2021), and 23rd (2022) respectively.

Aaron Kromer’s 2022 assistant

Well, the reality is that Ryan Wendell is the Assistant OL Coach to former Rams OL Coach Aaron Kromer. Yes, that’s right.  The LA Rams have hired the second-hand man to their former OL coach. Why is that significant? Well, it’s quite clear that he was hired by the LA Rams based on Aaron Kromer’s endorsement. And that is a similar fashion to the way the LA Rams hired OLB coach Brandon Staley to become their defensive coordinator in 2020.

Assistant OL coaches typically do the heavy lifting with rookies and new players, giving them rough concepts to help them catch up to the already familiarized veterans. In 2021, the Bills selected OL Spencer Brown with the 93rd overall pick, OL Tommy Doyle with the 161st overall pick, and finally Jack Anderson with the 236th overall pick.

The Bills also drafted OL Luke Tenuta with the 209th overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.

Of the group, Brown started in both 2021 and 2022, playing 726 offensive snaps in 2021, and 848 offensive snaps in 2022. Doyle was a spot starter, seeing action in 2021 for 65 snaps, and 37 snaps in 2022. Jack Anderson and Luke Tenuta have yet to see the field.

The Rams clearly want to recapture the same magic on the offensive line that tough guy Aaron Kromer instilled in the offensive line. After all, the LA Rams unit ranked among the NFL’s Top-10 in three of four seasons under Coach Kromer, and it’s clear that Aaron Kromer’s opinion still carries significant weight with LA Rams Head Coach Sean McVay.

Ryan Wendell was a former interior offensive lineman for the New England Patriots from 2009 through 2015, finishing his career with the Carolina Panthers in 2016. As a former player, he knows what it takes to play the game. As a former center, he knows how to call protections. And as a former assistant to Coach Kromer, he knows what it takes to succeed as a coach for the LA Rams staff.