Rams OL developments this off-season

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Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Sean McVay indicated today that the Rams are trying to get something done with starting C Coleman Shelton. Shelton has the option of voiding the final year of his deal and becoming a free agent this spring.

McVay: “We would really like to get him back. I would imagine that is the direction that they would potentially go. We are proactively trying to be able to get that taken care of. He is a guy we want to move forward with.”

What about Dotson

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Les addressed it earlier this month. They’d like to re-sign him, they understand he’ll have a competitive process, they still will try to practice discipline in certain places, so that situation will continue to evolve.

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You know what to do next @RamsNFL pic.twitter.com/0iBuuCrYsn

— Rams Tapes 🥶 (@RamsTapes) February 24, 2024

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Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue

Les Snead says Rams are in “constant communication” with center Coleman Shelton and representation, who decided to void his last year. Snead says they are trying to see if they can get something done with Shelton as a free agent. Sean McVay said last week they’d like to keep him.

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I really want the Rams to hold on to Dotson. Played so well and if the Rams really want to contend for the Super Bowl, I don't see how he's not part of it. https://t.co/rzozpn8tZb

— Zac (@ZacMaier) February 28, 2024

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Oregon’s Jackson Powers-Johnson talked about what he thinks makes him the best center in this class.

“Just my enthusiastic play and my physicality. I’m a bigger center and I think I move pretty good. Just being a physical, nasty center.” pic.twitter.com/nkls3yjBwI

— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) March 2, 2024

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Rams current OL roster. I blue-bold the known starters. Players in red are (IMO) goners. Players who right now have uncertain status are green bolded & followed by question marks.

Tremayne Anchrum
AJ Arcuri
Steve Avila
Logan Bruss
Kevin Dotson ?
Rob Havenstein
Alaric Jackson
Mike McAllister
Warren McClendon Jr.
Joe Noteboom
Coleman Shelton ?
Zach Thomas

It’s a deep draft at OL and so I expect them to load up, and that’s regardless who they do or do not keep. I expect them to take 2-4 guys, both high and low in the draft.

[InvaderRam]

i’m a little worried they won’t be able to keep dotson.

 

oline testing and drills at the combine today.

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InvaderRam wrote:

i’m a little worried they won’t be able to keep dotson. oline testing and drills at the combine today.

I think they can keep him, meaning strictly speaking they are able to if they want to. The question is whether they want to. Do they have a thing about how much they are willing to pay a guard? If so IMO itz krazy. I would pay a Dotson and then nasty block my way to the division title.

[InvaderRam]

zn wrote:

The question is whether they want to.

 

that’s what i’m getting at. i’m sure they could. i’m worried they’re not willing to pay him what he demands.

[InvaderRam]

i read my previous post and it wasn’t very well written.

 

but if they do decide to move on from dotson the rams need to draft online early and often.

 

watching the combine right now. lots of talented olineman. amarius mims looks electric. wow. draft him in the first round if he gets that far.

[InvaderRam]

so many prospects at oline.  just watched kingsley suamataia.  wow.  nfl network is really impressed with him in drills.

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"My big takeaway from the 2024 Combine is that it's the greatest offensive line draft class we've seen in some time… maybe ever. There are twelve- yes, twelve- guys who I could see get taken on Day One."
– @PSchrags pic.twitter.com/GmAcx3dtxj

— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) March 4, 2024

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from Rodrigue, in NFL Scouting Combine: One thing we learned about all 32 teams in Indy: https://theathletic.com/5311636/2024/03/04/nfl-scouting-combine-what-we-learned/?source=targeted_email&campaign=9201234&userId=603890

Los Angeles Rams

Is continuity on the offensive line the Rams’ priority entering free agency? The front office — spearheaded by comments from GM Les Snead on Wednesday — is conveying that message, saying they are in constant communication with representation for starting center Coleman Shelton, who voided the final year of his deal and will be a free agent, and starting right guard Kevin Dotson. Both players are expected to at least hit the legal tampering period portion of free agency, and if the Rams can’t get something done with either or both players, their draft needs along the offensive line become more urgent. However, scouts and analysts in Indianapolis have raved about the strength of this offensive line class, particularly at center and tackle. Either way, expect the Rams to invest here. — Jourdan Rodrigue

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Blaine Grisak @bgrisakTST

Per @Schultz_Report, the Rams are putting an original round tender on OT Alaric Jackson for $3.2M. Surprised it’s not a second round tender that would have cost $4.8M. Putting an original round tender on Jackson is their way of seeing what his value is without risking losing him. They can match any offer sheet. A way of getting a fair number as he becomes their full-time starting LT.

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How many NFL starting centers will come from the 2024 draft class?

If the over/under is 4.5, I'm taking the over. JPJ, Barton, Frazier, Van Pran, Bortolini, Nourzad, Limmer. A few more promising options on day 3.

AWESOME year to draft a center. pic.twitter.com/CGnQgzcAUJ

— Dane Brugler (@dpbrugler) March 7, 2024

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zn wrote:

Blaine Grisak @bgrisakTST

Per @Schultz_Report, the Rams are putting an original round tender on OT Alaric Jackson for $3.2M. Surprised it’s not a second round tender that would have cost $4.8M.

…

PA RAM

A first round tender is over 6. A second round tender is just under 5. Right of first refusal was the cheapest….just over 3.

Wise move. If nobody makes him an offer, we get him cheap. If somebody offers him we can match. And with the depth of the OT draft class, will he get any huge offers?

For other teams, do you come up with an offer you think the Ram won’t match, or just pick a guy in a draft that is loaded at LOT? Plus the other side of the coin is, if someone actually does sign Jackson to an unmatchable deal, it’s a good year for the Rams to draft a left OT.

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zn wrote:

Blaine Grisak @bgrisakTST Per @Schultz_Report, the Rams are putting an original round tender on OT Alaric Jackson for $3.2M. Surprised it’s not a second round tender that would have cost $4.8M.

ME: that might not be accurate?

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Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue

The Rams are planning to tender RFA left tackle Alaric Jackson, according to a source (as

@JFowlerESPN said yesterday). They haven’t settled on the level of tender yet and have until early next week to do so. Jackson was a UDFA, so the RofFR would be $3M. Second round is $4.89M,

.

First round is $6.82M. As a reminder, if another team submits an offer sheet to an RFA, the original team can opt to match or else receive the pick correlating to the tender (if pick value is attached).

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You think Booms situation will be resolved before the start of FA? [me: ie. Noteboom]

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Yes, because either it’s a restructure or a cut

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This became very relevant today…

When Rams drafted Avila, it was his versatility that sold him during the pre-draft process, especially at the Senior Bowl.

This may have always been the plan. Now with Jonah Jackson signing, he likely moves over to center. https://t.co/i7cViXy4CJ

— Blaine Grisak 💭 (@bgrisakTST) March 11, 2024

[Zooey]

Well, if Avila is as good at C as he is at G, then there is a good chance that I will be happy about this OL.

[Zooey]

The #Rams O Line this Season…. pic.twitter.com/bYMTIi5wIG https://t.co/jQG0Eh2EnK

— 𝚂𝚕𝚢 ™️ (@ThinkBlue47) March 11, 2024

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Zooey wrote:

Well, if Avila is as good at C as he is at G, then there is a good chance that I will be happy about this OL.

He was actually a starting OC in college longer than he was at guard.

According to Stu Jackson, his versatility was one of the reasons the Rams took him as their 1st pick in 2023. Plus their new (and IMO great) OL coach, Wendell, played center for the Patriots. So you reckon he knows what his doing coaching that position.

IMO this may be the best Rams IOL…since maybe 1978 (that was the last year for this combo: Mack Saul Harrah).

Avilla probably has a head on his shoulders like Doug Smith, the last really great Rams center, but Avilla is both bigger and more athletic than Smith was.

They have never had 2 OGs with both size and athleticism like Jackson and Dotson.

In fact this IOL is looking downright diabolical.

 

[Zooey]

zn wrote:

In fact this IOL is looking downright diabolical.

Yeah, if the Rams could throw in a Slater or a Pace, that would be swell. But A. Jack is underrated and comparatively cheap. For this year, anyway.

And I can’t help but think of Stephen Jackson in an offense like this.

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Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

In fact this IOL is looking downright diabolical.

Yeah, if the Rams could throw in a Slater or a Pace, that would be swell. But A. Jack is underrated and comparatively cheap. For this year, anyway. And I can’t help but think of Stephen Jackson in an offense like this.

I have a theory about that.

You can have a great line starting Nutten and McCollum on the inside if you have Pace at LOT.

But you can also have a great line with a solid as opposed to elite LOT if you have a diabolical IOL.

Some teams have used the “build from the inside-out” approach to great success before. I’m thinking for example of the 2009 superbowl winning Saints, who had Jahri Evans at OG and Jermon Bushrod at LOT. Bushrod was pretty good but Evans was one of the best guards to ever play the game (and at 6’4 320 was in the “Rams at guard in 2024” mold).

Meanwhile, nothing stops them from drafting a couple of developmental OTs in the lower rounds of an OL rich draft.

And mentioning Steven Jackson is interesting because of course Jackson was Kyren Wms’s favorite player growing up. He was a St. Louis Rams fan. I think Wms has Jackson’s spirit in him even if he doesn’t have SJ’s body.

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Rodrigue: In O-line moves, the Rams recommitted to their wall and the maul

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/5333667/2024/03/12/la-rams-offensive-line-commitment/?source=emp_shared_article

Nothing like a little “proof of concept” to encourage total buy-in, eh?

Monday, the Los Angeles Rams agreed to a three-year deal with left guard Jonah Jackson, worth up to $51 million with $34 million guaranteed, multiple league sources said. The move came just days after the Rams extended starting right guard Kevin Dotson on a three-year deal, worth up to $48 million with $32 million guaranteed. Jackson’s deal can become official at the start of the new league year March 13.

In 2023, the Rams made a conscious effort — between the decisions of the front office and the scheme deployed by coach Sean McVay — to overhaul and reinvest in their protection of quarterback Matthew Stafford and their run game.

That couldn’t just be a one-year commitment, and it had to start up front.

Alaric Jackson, who is 6 feet 7 and 330 pounds, took over full time at left tackle after an injury-addled failed experiment with previous starter Joe Noteboom. They drafted 6-foot-3, 332-pound Steve Avila at pick No. 36 last spring, and he played 100 percent of the offensive snaps there. Alaric Jackson is expecting to be tendered, a league source said, though the team has yet to decide which value of tender he will receive (a range between $3 million and $6.8 million for one year).

Jonah Jackson is 6 feet 4 and 311 pounds. Dotson is 6 feet 4 and 321 pounds.

To borrow a phrase from a controversial general manager I once covered, those are bona fide hog mollies.

But what the Rams are now doing schematically with their pass protection and run game matters as much as the overall size of their offensive line; in fact, the two are interconnected.

Since he took over as the Rams’ coach in 2017, McVay deployed a mid- and outside-zone run scheme that aimed to stretch defenses horizontally. In marriage with sound play action, quarterbacks in his system (and others who shared the same philosophy) could attack downfield as a defense worked to account for that horizontal space off of those run fakes. Because guards and centers were also asked to move horizontally, linemen outside of the typical prototypes could be identified with less investment — so, with lower-priced deals and with non-first-round draft picks — because they were often smaller and faster.

But McVay’s run game became increasingly one-dimensional after the departure of Todd Gurley in 2019. The Rams went from the top of the NFL in production there to near the bottom. In 2021, he pivoted to Stafford, a quarterback who was less dependent on play action and able to supplement dimension in the pass game with shotgun and pure dropback concepts. Still, the Rams’ offense had the reputation around the league of a “finesse” group — a stellar pass game, but lacking the teeth that usually come from a gut-busting ground attack.

In 2022, Stafford was hit more times through nine active games than any other quarterback in the McVay era. Those 63 hits (29 of them sacks), and the hits to the ground, sent Stafford to the concussion protocol twice and resulted in a bruised spinal cord that ended his season. The offense went three-and-out at nearly a 40 percent rate, the worst in McVay’s tenure. The offensive line, minus right tackle Rob Havenstein (6 foot 8, 330 pounds), was decimated with injuries, but even a healthy group would have raised questions.

So in spring and summer 2023, McVay committed to adjusting his scheme to feature more gap- and man-blocking concepts — a favorite run became “duo” — with plenty of motion and sifting from tight ends and receivers (they still ran mid- and outside-zone as well, mixing horizontal stretch with downhill power), and GM Les Snead committed to the type of personnel up front it would take to run the more physical plays.

Enter Avila, who was the top second-day prospect on the Rams’ draft board last spring. The Rams also fast-tracked second-year running back Kyren Williams into the lead role and traded previous starter Cam Akers, then added reserve back Ronnie Rivers — both Rivers and Williams excelled in the early iterations of the gap runs McVay installed in training camp.

The Rams also invested in their coaching of the offensive line, hiring former longtime Patriots center Ryan Wendell as the new position coach, promoting assistants Zak Kromer and Nick Jones and adding famed coach Mike Munchak in a consulting role. Though Jones joined former Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris in Atlanta as the latter took over as head coach, Los Angeles remains hopeful Munchak will return to consult another year.

Then the Rams corrected previous errors. Noteboom received a contract extension after left tackle Andrew Whitworth retired in 2022, but instead of taking that spot over full time, Noteboom had horrible injury luck in 2022 and 2023. Eventually, he was beaten out at left tackle by Alaric Jackson in 2023. The Rams could have forced a player on a contract such as Noteboom’s into the right guard spot (and almost did), but instead traded for Dotson. Noteboom became a “sixth man” swing player. Noteboom’s $15 million cap number is now far too high for a backup. Sources briefed on the matter say he will either take a restructure, or be cut and test his market in free agency. Center Brian Allen, who was also extended alongside Noteboom but who also had terrible injury luck and was eventually surpassed as a starter, was released before free agency.

Stafford got leaner entering 2023. The Rams moved his pocket more frequently than they had in 2021-22 and Stafford even ran the ball a little himself. The offense returned to top-10 status and lifted a gutted defensive roster that needed time and support to develop on the cheap. The Rams won 10 games, finished eighth in the NFL in Expected Points Added per Rush, tied for fourth in EPA/play and tied for sixth in EPA/pass attempt (according to TruMedia). Stafford was sacked 34 times, tied for sixth lowest in 2023.

To reiterate: The Rams’ functional, financial and schematic offensive line overhaul couldn’t just be a one-year promise after the rock bottom that was 2022. Alaric Jackson’s tender will extend him for a year, and he is extension-eligible if he plays well for a consecutive season. Avila, Jonah Jackson and Dotson are all contractually aligned for at least the next three seasons, and because Avila is on his rookie deal, the Rams will essentially pay their three interior offensive linemen about $35 million per year. Havenstein has two years left on his current contract with a $14.7 million cap hit in 2024, ranking No. 12 among right tackles ahead of the start of free agency.

Jonah Jackson’s signing, according to team sources, indicates a shift for Avila inside to center. The Rams were in communication with previous starting center Coleman Shelton’s representation before and as free agency’s legal tampering window began, they said publicly, after Shelton decided to void the final year on his contract to test his market. Shelton’s market did begin to develop as the Rams kept a close eye on it, and though they were open about wanting to keep him, they also weren’t going to delay on moving with urgency to sign a player of Jackson’s caliber especially if all it meant was moving Avila to center.

Avila played center at a high level while at TCU and is an excellent communicator. His move, and the addition of Jackson, means the interior of Stafford’s pocket will now be protected by nearly 1,000 pounds. The exterior is protected by two sequoia trees, if sequoia trees could punch you in the mouth.

After 2022, the Rams talked a big game about reinvesting in their offensive line, protecting their veteran quarterback, overhauling their run game and getting more physical. They backed that up with sound scheme and big people — committing to a wall, and a run game that can maul.

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zn wrote:

The exterior is protected by two sequoia trees, if sequoia trees could punch you in the mouth.

Rodrigue on the Rams 2 starting tackles.

 

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Tom Pelissero@TomPelissero

The #Rams placed a second-round restricted tender on LT Alaric Jackson. It’s worth $4.89 million. Jackson is still free to negotiate with any team; if the Rams do not match a contract offer from another team, they are entitled to a second-round pick from his new team.

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from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2024/03/12/rams-free-agency-alaric-jackson-tender-2nd-round/?taid=65f1052d00e0f4000189eb66&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

.

If Jackson doesn’t sign an offer sheet from another team, he will receive $4.89 million from the Rams for the 2024 season and become an unrestricted free agent in 2025.

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Free Agency Frosty@FrostyTalksFB

Alaric Jackson is back in LA

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Jackson, 25, 6-7, 285lbs is a LT entering his 4th season after being a UDFA

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Jackson started 15 games at LT and helped the Rams OL allow the 7th-lowest sack rate (5.5%).

.

He only allowed 1 sack all season, the best among OTs who played 500+ snaps

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Me:

he did, however, allow 39 pressures. Though it looked to me that he improved after the bye.

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from https://www.turfshowtimes.com/2024/3/9/24095360/rams-alaric-jackson-depth-chart-ol-draft

Jackson struggled to start 2023

Below are the left tackle’s Pro Football Focus (PFF) offensive and pass blocking grades before the Rams’ Week 10 bye week:

Week 1 at Seahawks: 62.9, 88.5; 1 pressure allowed
Week 2 vs 49ers: 48.5, 24.2; 6 pressures
Week 3 at Bengals: 52.0, 43.1; 3 pressures
Week 5 vs Eagles: 49.8, 66..5; 2 pressures
Week 6 vs Cardinals: 62.4, 75.8; 3 pressures
Week 7 vs Steelers: 42.2, 29.1; 6 pressures
Week 8 at Cowboys: 68.5, 75.2; 2 pressures
Week 9 at Packers: 54.5, 74.3; 1 pressure

Jackson’s pass blocking started to turn a corner in Week 8 against the Cowboys and he pretty much maintained that standard over the remainder of the season, save for a few tougher matchups.

He finished strong and may be an ascending player

Jackson’s PFF offensive and pass blocking grades over the final stretch of the season are as follows:

Week 11 vs Seahawks: 61.9, 80.4; 2 pressures allowed
Week 12 at Cardinals: 78.0, 54.7; 3 pressures
Week 13 vs Browns: 70.4, 63.8; 2 pressures
Week 14 at Ravens: 66.5, 79.4; 4 pressures
Week 15 vs Commanders: 82.0, 89.3; 0 pressures
Week 16 vs Saints: 75.8, 80.0; 1 pressure
Week 18 at 49ers: 65.9, 62.2; 3 pressures
Wildcard at Lions: 65.8, 74.5; 2 pressures

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from https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2024-nfl-free-agency-one-positive-takeaway-all-32-nfl-teams#LAR

LOS ANGELES RAMS: THE OFFENSIVE LINE APPEARS TO BE SET

The Rams’ offensive line played surprisingly well in 2023. The team ranked fifth in the NFL in run-blocking grade. Their pass blocking vastly improved after a poor start and ranked seventh in the NFL after Week 5. Retaining right guard Kevin Dotson is a huge win, and adding Detroit’s Jonah Jackson is a better move than the surface-level numbers would suggest.

Jackson has been one of the league’s best blockers in man run schemes. The Rams lead the league in man running plays over the past two years as Sean McVay has leaned away from his usual zone tactics. Jackson also likely pushes Steve Avila to center, where he played the majority of his snaps in college. Jackson is a better fit with the Rams than any other team in the NFL.

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