Noteboom …

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
So, welcome to the Joe Noteboom Era. Not the ideal way to start it, but at least the Rams will get a good look at whether he’s truly a long-term option at left tackle, or whether they need to look outside. Noteboom’s contract runs through 2021.

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Jourdan Rodrigue
from https://theathletic.com/2198917/2020/11/15/andrew-whitworth-rams-knee-noteboom/?source=twittered

Third-year offensive lineman Joe Noteboom took over for Whitworth on Sunday. Noteboom was initially drafted (in the third round in 2018) with the hope that he might be able to play “swing tackle” for the Rams, with the valuable ability to play the left or right side, but after a season-ending injury in 2019 stalled his development, he came into camp this year at left guard.

In fact, Noteboom opened this season as the Rams’ starting left guard, and he held the job until suffering a calf strain in Week 2 and landing on injured reserve. This week, in preparation for Seattle and when Whitworth got a scheduled rest day, Noteboom began taking practice reps at left tackle for the first time in over a year.

Anchrum, who was a healthy scratch on Sunday, has showed promise in taking the left tackle reps. As a rookie, he’s perhaps getting more valuable practice time than anybody at his position across the league because of Whitworth’s scheduled days off. But Anchrum is a seventh-rounder and is still working into his body and his technique.

The hope, obviously, is that the Rams don’t need Noteboom to fill in for long. But if they’re going to re-invest in his development at left tackle after straying from it, now is the time. It’s not sustainable for a swing tackle, who has played most of his meaningful snaps at guard, to be a long-term replacement for Whitworth.

Even a decent left tackle still must be an expert at his craft; a great one is very hard to find if not developed in-house. A guy like that comes along only once in an eon — or maybe once in a Whitworth.

Perhaps that’s part of why it felt so awful to see him down on the field. Yes, it was a horrible scene, knowing how special of a player and teammate Whitworth is, how they just don’t make ’em like him anymore, and how terrible it is to see anyone in pain.

But some of it also was the stark understanding that, minus his presence in the space he so solidly occupies, there is a great unknown.