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November 27, 2015 at 9:01 am #34752
znModeratorRhaney is next man up for battered O-line
Jim Thomas
He was one of the surprises of training camp, a quick, athletic interior lineman who came close to winning a starting job from out of nowhere on the depth chart.
As it turned out, Demetrius Rhaney didn’t win the starting center job; it went to University of Missouri product Tim Barnes instead. Nonetheless, Rhaney became more than the answer to the trivia question: Who did the Rams take in the seventh round after Michael Sam in 2014?
The word at Rams Park was that with a year of getting bigger and stronger, Rhaney could earn a starting job in the future and perhaps become a fixture on the offensive line for years to come. But unlike many other positions in football, if you’re not a starter on the O-line then you’re not playing at all, except maybe as a blocker on the extra point/field goal unit on special teams.
So as the regular season progressed, Rhaney faded into the background, a forgotten man. Until now, that is.
As the injury bug continues to spread on the offensive line, Rhaney will make his first NFL start Sunday against Cincinnati.
“I finished the preseason playing guard, Timmy won the starting spot,” Rhaney said. “He earned it. He’d been here. He was more mentally ready for it. So I just stepped back and kept taking the mental reps and waited for my number to be called.”
Rhaney became the next man up early in the second quarter last week against Baltimore when rookie Andrew Donnal suffered a knee injury. Donnal is expected to miss several weeks with an MCL injury, giving Rhaney a chance to start at guard.
Although he has gotten most of his practice reps at center, Rhaney did get some work at left guard in training camp, including practicing against Dallas during the Rams’ practices in Oxnard, Calif.
“I’m pretty comfortable anywhere in the middle,” said Rhaney, taken 250th overall out of Tennessee State. He missed the entire ’14 season after suffering a knee injury on the practice field in training camp.
Once Donnal went down in Baltimore, Rhaney finished out the game at right guard, playing basically three quarters.
“It felt pretty good,” Rhaney said. “Mentally I was locked in. No mental mistakes. My technique could’ve been better, but this week it looks like I’m gonna be starting at left guard. So technique should be a lot better this week. That’s the main thing I’m focusing on improving.”
Baltimore has a stout defensive front, but Rhaney said things went better than expected against the Ravens’ Timmy Jernigan.
“From watching film I thought Jernigan was gonna be a handful,” Rhaney said. “I thought he was gonna be similar to Aaron Donald. But he (wasn’t). The biggest problem for me was the nose guard. It was 98.”
That would be Brandon Williams, a mammoth of a defensive tackle who played his high school ball at Rockwood Summit in suburban St. Louis.
“He beat me across my face one play and got to Todd Gurley in the backfield,” Rhaney said of Williams. “We got to the sideline I told Coach Boo, ‘I gotta cut him. That’s a grown man out there.’”
(Coach Boo is offensive line coach Paul Boudreau.)
As for attempting to block Williams, the above play that Rhaney described was his welcome-to-the-NFL moment.
“Yeah, it was a rude awakening,” Rhaney said.
As he watched the game unfold from the sideline, coach Jeff Fisher said he was “a little concerned” with Rhaney’s play.
“But when you watch the tape, he got it done,” Fisher said. “Those guys are big inside and they’re penetrators. He gave up a play, but he battled in there.”
There will be another challenge this week for Rhaney and the rest of the Rams’ interior offensive line against the 8-2 Bengals and a front headlined by one of the game’s top “3-technique” defensive tackles, Geno Atkins.
“They’re pretty good,” Rhaney said. “But we practice against one of the best, too, every week. You got Aaron Donald, Michael Brockers, Robert Quinn. We practice against the best, so they shouldn’t be too much to handle.”
Rhaney will be the ninth Rams offensive lineman to start a game this season, as the injuries continue to pile up. Three offensive linemen are out for the season: Rodger Saffold, Jamon Brown, and Darrell Williams. Two others — Donnal and Rob Havenstein — are out with injury but still on the active roster.
Rookie Cody Wichmann, a sixth-rounder from Fresno State, became the eighth Rams offensive lineman to start a game, doing so last week in Baltimore. With Rhaney set to start at left guard, and Wichmann at right guard, the Rams will start their fourth different line combination in the past five weeks.
Hardly the way to build the kind of continuity essential to strong offensive line play. Left tackle Greg Robinson and center Tim Barnes are the only opening-day starters still standing on the offensive line at this point.
“We’ve been working all season as the second-team unit to get our shot,” Wichmann said. “And finally getting out there and seeing what we can actually do in a live situation, it’s a weight off the shoulders.”
Wichmann had his own welcome to the NFL moment (or two) last week against the Ravens.
“I might’ve got put on my butt once or so,” Wichmann said. “Definitely things to work on. Just technique here and there. Keeping the feet moving and what-not. You gotta use you experiences and build off those.”
November 27, 2015 at 1:40 pm #34766znModeratorOn guard: Rams turn to Demetrius Rhaney, Cody Wichmann to handle interior OL spots
Nick Wagoner
EARTH CITY, Mo. — In what has become a seemingly never-ending game of musical offensive linemen, the St. Louis Rams will likely have two inexperienced starters at both guard spots against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
After starting rookie Cody Wichmann at right guard and veteran Garrett Reynolds at left guard last week, the Rams lost right tackle Andrew Donnal to a knee injury, forcing Reynolds to right tackle and bringing backup center Demetrius Rhaney in at right guard, with Wichmann moving to the left side.
Without Donnal and given right tackle Rob Havenstein’s continued struggles with a calf injury, the Rams now will probably find themselves starting the five linemen who finished their last game. That means another chance for Wichmann and Rhaney on the interior.
After a small bite of the apple in Week 11, Rhaney and Wichmann are hoping to be better this time around.
“I felt pretty good,” Rhaney said. “Mentally I was locked in, no mental mistakes. My technique could have been better, but this week it looks like I’m going to be starting at left guard so technique should be a lot better this week. That’s the main thing I’m focusing on improving.”
If Rhaney is correct and he starts on the left side, that would at least allow for Wichmann to start at the same spot for the second week in a row. Rhaney played both guard spots in the preseason but was mainly on the left side until just before the team’s preseason game against Indianapolis. Just before that contest, Rhaney flipped over to the left side.
But most of Rhaney’s preseason was spent battling for the role as starting center, a job he lost to Tim Barnes. Since, he’s worked as a backup at all three interior spots.
The Week 11 loss to Baltimore was Rhaney’s first extended action aside from special teams. In his own evaluation of his play, Rhaney said he felt comfortable but didn’t deny having his own “welcome to the NFL” moment as Ravens defensive tackle Brandon Williams beat him and got to running back Todd Gurley quickly in the backfield.
“I talked to coach Bou [offensive-line coach Paul Boudreau] and said we got to cut him, that’s a grown man out there,” Rhaney said. “It was a rude awakening. Him beating me across my face was a technique issue. I took a bad first step.”
In an effort to get up to speed, Rhaney said injured guard Rodger Saffold has been helping him with technique this week.
“He stayed back and worked with me on a few technique things, my steps and my hands and hand placement,” Rhaney said.
Wichmann had his own rude welcome, though he wasn’t as forthcoming with the exact play or players that gave him trouble.
“I might have got put on my butt once or so,” Wichmann said. “That’s always a welcome to the NFL. But I’m just glad to be here. I’ll take that once in a while as long as it doesn’t happen often.”
As a primary backup playing exclusively at guard, Wichmann has worked at both sides and feels plenty comfortable either place.
“At this point, switching between left and right is not too big of a deal anymore,” Wichmann said. “But I played there all throughout college so it will be a little bit easier.”
A sixth-round pick in this year’s NFL draft, Wichmann came with less acclaim than many of his draftmates, but the Rams rave about his and Donnal’s toughness and functional strength. The Rams almost certainly would have preferred not to have to dig so deep into the depth chart, but they’ll at least get a better idea of what they have with a closer look at the likes of Rhaney and Wichmann in the starting lineup.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher expects more from both young linemen in their second opportunity.
“That’s usually the case, especially when you’re talking about Cody, who got to play,” Fisher said. “It was the first time that he got to play. So yeah, I think he’ll learn from the speed of the game, learn from his mistakes and he should get better. It’s a tough week to get better against this defense, but I expect Cody to improve and same thing with ‘D.’”
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