center

Rodrigue: Minus Cam Akers, could Rams’ RB question affect who plays center, too?

By Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2731682/2021/07/26/rodrigue-minus-cam-akers-could-rams-rb-question-affect-who-plays-center-too/?source=emp_shared_article

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — It’s not just that the Rams emotionally felt the brutal loss of second-year running back Cam Akers, who a source said will be out for the season with an Achilles tendon injury suffered last week.

It’s that losing Akers reverberates in other ways, too. The Rams must, of course, figure out who — or what combination of backs — will fill Akers’ expected carry-share as the projected lead running back coming into 2021. But also, not having Akers may impact the Rams’ run scheme overall — which in turn could impact their offensive line, and particularly what they decide to do at center.

The Rams lost former starting center Austin Blythe to a cheaper deal with Kansas City in free agency, and so in the spring turned to former starting right guard Austin Corbett to fill the role — or at least take all of the first-team reps available to media observation, with new quarterback Matthew Stafford. Moving Corbett over may have happened anyway, even if Blythe stayed (and he could have seen the writing on the wall and been more motivated to leave), because head coach Sean McVay began integrating more gap and trap concepts into his rush plan because of Akers’ specific skill set.

“That was right in alignment with some of Cam’s patience, and the skill set that he had,” McVay said.

That, in turn, required a more prototypically base-powerful center to help set up that blocking and moved the Rams away from their previous “mold” at center — a player who is bit lighter and perhaps quicker, to allow for movement in the wider-zone system. They had drafted Brian Allen in the fourth round in 2018, and he fits that mold and has starting experience. But in 2020, as Allen recovered from a serious leg injury, he missed time in the schematic shift and the Rams also moved away from that physical prototype. In the spring, Allen repped on the second team at times, but also worked at right guard.

Simply put, it seemed that the Rams believed Corbett to be a better fit for the schematic direction in which the Rams wanted to move up front — particularly as it pertained to the run game with Akers.

But without Akers? McVay would not commit on Monday morning to naming Corbett the starting center and in fact, implied that Allen would compete for the job in camp. That was a change from what team sources have been saying about Corbett’s move to center since prior to the 2021 NFL Draft in April.

“I feel really good about Austin’s ability to (start),” said McVay when asked directly. “We know he’s played really high-level ball at the guard position. And Brian Allen is a guy who has played good football for us, too. I think we’re really in the midst of figuring out what is that best collaboration and collection of what those five guys up front look like. I was really pleased with what Brian Allen did over the course of the spring; I was really pleased with what Austin Corbett did.”

Sure, that could simply be gamesmanship and preseason posturing, when a coach tries to hide his hand. But if we’re reading between the lines, and if the Rams truthfully have not picked a center, that selection may also depend some on Darrell Henderson.

The third-year back is poised to take over the lead role — yet even here, there are questions that may reverberate throughout the run game as a whole. Henderson rushed for 624 yards in 15 games as a part of a committee of three backs, but had repetitive hamstring and high ankle sprain issues and was not yet fully healthy even in the spring, according to McVay.

While McVay added that he believes that Henderson could run the gap and trap concepts they had started to favor with Akers, if the lead back helps dictate what the center will do, and in turn helps dictate who that center will even be, the Rams have to make sure that lead back can stay on the field.

So far, it sounds like McVay and the coaching staff are leaning toward a carry count for Henderson, in order to maximize his durability. That could also mean more opportunities for players such as Xavier Jones, the former UDFA who stuck to the 53-man roster last fall, former seventh-rounders Raymond Calais and Jake Funk, and perhaps even UDFA signee Otis Anderson.

“This has never been an ability question for Darrell Henderson,” McVay said. “This is, ‘All right, how do we find a strategic and a structured way to keep him available for all of these games. What does that workload look like? Because he is the most established guy in that room. You can see — when he gets the ball in his hand and he puts his foot in the ground, there’s a burst. And he’s sturdy, too. … He can make plays in the pass game, as well. I think he is a complete back. … What our biggest challenge is is not figuring out if he’s capable of doing it, it’s finding that sweet spot of, ‘How do we maximize Darrell Henderson while also getting some of these other guys involved and figuring out what that touch-point is to keep him healthy throughout the regular season and a big part of our offense?’”

This may be the real reason the Rams are exercising patience through the start of training camp following Akers’ diagnosis, instead of rushing to sign a veteran back. Not only do they still have big questions to answer at the running back position itself, and how the carry-share will divvy out between Henderson and other backs in order to maximize his availability, but it also directly correlates to their offensive line and what they’re able to do schematically — and who the best fit at center for that scheme will be.

In fact, solving one will probably help solve the other.