the sad desperate history of Rams OL injury years

Sad desperate history of Rams OL injury years? There are a few seasons that sort of qualify for that. Here I do 2007, 2009, & 2011.

Each of those years had their own special injury hell.

In 2011, they fielded 9 starting OL, and (by my quick count) 8 different OL combinations.

The starters included Saffold Bell Brown Dahl Smith Goldberg Wragge LeVoir Mattison

That’s not really the whole story. Because of constant shuffling, some started more than one position. Dahl for example had to shift to right tackle. Brown got benched and then had to come back at guard. They started 3 different left tackles—Saffold Levoir Goldberg.

The week 1 OL was

Saffold Bell Brown Dahl Smith

The week 17 OL was

LeVoir Brown Wragge Mattison Dahl

With lots of variations in between.

Of the 5 in the week 17 OL, 3 were out of football after that season and 1 more lasted just 1 more year. Only Dahl kept playing, though not at ROT.

All this was compounded by 2 things.

1. They were playing an entirely new offensive scheme without benefit of an off-season. On top of it, McD was not patient with it—when installing the offense over the summer, he would go over something one day and then move on the next. (In 2012, players remarked on how unlike the year before they would review things as a part of installing the new system, and this was contrasted with 2011). As a result, the OL began the season about as out of sync as I have ever seen them. There were times when a pulling guard and the center wouldn’t have their timing down and one would actually trip the other.

2. Both Bell and Brown were out of it mentally. After the season, in fact, both had offers and yet both left football. Brown actually got benched, as I said, yet they needed to bring him back. I think Brown’s brother being killed as a soldier overseas shook him up. That was the season also where Jason Smith hung it up mentally—if you recall he was getting neck and head injuries and was checking out mentally because it didn’t seem worth it to him, it was scary to him.

In 2009, it was 9 starters and 7 OL combinations. One loss wasn’t an injury—they cut Incognito.

Barron Bell Brown Incognito Smith Goldberg Setterstrom Greco Allen.

In 2007,, the mother of all OL injury years, it was 12 different starters and 8 different OL combinations. They had 5 different OL combinations in the 1st 5 games….6 in the 1st 8 games.

Pace Setterstrom Romberg M.Brown (at both OG and OT)Barron Terrell Goldberg Incognito McCollum (at both center and guard) Gorin Lecky Steussie

….2007 had 14 OL on the roster, in the end.

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So far that leaves out 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2014.