.@TG3II shares why he choose to sign with the @Falcons this offseason.

For Todd's full appearance: https://t.co/dyKbOgxdqi pic.twitter.com/P37JlmJmPg

— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) August 15, 2020

zn wrote:

Are the Rams playoff contenders? Five questions with Football Outsiders

That one (previous post) is especially good. THOUGH the analyst comments on Akers performance at FSU and neglected to mention that FSU had a gawdawful bad OL.

ICYMI: Bill Belichick: Rookies are in deep, turbulent water and "it's going to get rougher"https://t.co/bByMf7xCmI pic.twitter.com/KzICVNvDib

— Around The NFL (@AroundTheNFL) August 15, 2020

from PFF https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2020-team-preview-los-angeles-rams

DEVELOPMENT NEEDED: AUSTIN CORBETT
The Rams’ season may hinge on the offensive line bouncing back to form, and Corbett must improve both in the run game and in pass protection. He has the skill set to produce in the Rams’ system, but play strength looked like an issue last season, and that’s part of the reason offensive linemen tend to develop later than other positions. Corbett was solid in pass protection while playing tackle at Nevada, and it’s another area we should see him improve in, especially given his transition inside to guard. Corbett is one of a few offensive linemen the Rams are counting on to develop up front.

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from https://theathletic.com/333121/2018/04/27/browns-draft-pick-profile-austin-corbett/

Corbett is a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe. The Northern Paiute people are a Numic tribe that has traditionally lived in the Great Basin region of the United States in what is now eastern California, western Nevada, and southeast Oregon. Now the Walker River Paiute Tribe live on a reservation located in central Nevada.

Corbett weighed just 240 coming out of high school. He missed more games than he played in high school due to two knee injuries and didn’t garner much recruiting interest his senior season. He went on to start 49 of the 50 games he played at Nevada.

Corbett caught the attention of the NFL with a strong showing at the Senior Bowl…where he impressed with his athleticism

—

from 2018: https://www.espn.com/blog/nfceast/post/_/id/80991/austin-corbett-is-an-under-the-radar-name-in-the-2018-nfl-draft

G/C Austin Corbett (Nevada) — Late-first/early-second pick. Productive college player. Competitive with quick feet. Not known as a mauler.

…

Somewhere late in the first or early in the second round of the NFL draft, Austin Corbett’s name will be called. There will be plenty of shrugs and Google searches to follow for fans of whatever team drafts him, as they try to figure out who he is and what he can bring to the table.

Anonymity is nothing new for Corbett. He should be used to it by now. Corbett was a walk-on offensive lineman at the University of Nevada after playing as a 240-pound senior at Reed High School in Sparks, Nevada. For fans, he might be the most under-the-radar projected first-round pick in this year’s NFL draft.

Corbett is hardly unknown to NFL teams, though. A small-town kid with big-time dreams and goals, he has had workouts or visits with 15 teams in the lead-up to the draft. Among those teams were the New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons and Dallas Cowboys.

The Giants, with the second pick of the second round (34th overall), are a realistic landing spot. They had a private workout with Corbett earlier this month. He fits general manager Dave Gettleman’s plan to bolster the interior of the offensive line through the draft.
Corbett played tackle at Nevada, but he is projected as a guard in the NFL. Some even think center might be his best fit. Gettleman is expected to go after some “hog mollies” in the draft. Corbett, whose brother played offensive line at San Diego State, fits the Giants’ mold.

“Just kind of that offensive-line mentality comes from my dad,” Corbett said. “We’ve had some struggles and he’s been through rough times with jobs and the recession and all that. He’s had to do things. Getting laid off. But it doesn’t matter what is going on in your life, you have to work to keep a roof over your head.

“It’s that mentality that me and my brother have both taken on from my dad. That is what an offensive lineman is. No matter the situation or what is going on, you have a job to do. If you don’t do it, your team is going to suffer.”

It’s this approach that has allowed Corbett to blossom. After arriving at Nevada as a walk-on, he was the Wolf Pack’s starting left tackle during his redshirt freshman season. He was a team captain by the time he was a sophomore.

Corbett said the captaincy was something he lucked into. That’s more than a touch of modesty. Really, it was earned. His teammates respected the way he played through a painful ankle injury in the final 11 games of his freshman campaign and voted him a captain. He ended up being a three-year captain at Nevada.

“That’s kind of what I pride myself on,” Corbett said. “I’m going to help my brothers out. I’m going to get the job done for them, and really why I love playing offensive line. It’s not a glory position. I don’t want it to be. I want to do my work so other people can get the credit.”

Corbett is a realistic option to be in the mix for the Falcons at No. 26, Vikings at 30, Giants at 34 or Colts at 36 or 37.

“Just productive as hell,” said one scout who gave him a first-round grade. “Smart, competitive, just a really good player.”

With that kind of thinking by some teams, the days of flying under the radar and being the underdog are over. Corbett is about to be a high draft pick.

The undersized kid from a small town in Nevada could soon be in a big city.

“It’s definitely surreal because of where I grew up in Reno or in Sparks,” Corbett said. “Not a lot of kids have really made it this far. Just to be that one and bring it to us firsthand is crazy.

“When I started as a walk-on at Nevada, I was just happy to be there, just be a part of the team, and wanted to do everything I could to further that. This really is an opportunity to live out a dream, make the most of it.”

==

from PFF https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2020-team-preview-los-angeles-rams

Goff critics will point to last season as his regression back down to earth, but the reality is that he has played like a mid-tier quarterback whose production has been dependent on his ecosystem. The Rams’ scheme was fantastic in 2017 and 2018, as was the receiving talent, and Goff’s numbers reflected those truths. Last year, the scheme hit a lull and the offensive line was a disaster, leaving Goff with his worst performance since his rookie season in 2016. We’ve seen Goff make a high percentage of big-time throws while efficiently attacking the intermediate level, and he’s primed to bounce back as long as the offensive line returns to form and a third wide receiver emerges as a vertical threat.

Are the Rams playoff contenders? Five questions with Football Outsiders

https://www.si.com/nfl/rams/news/los-angeles-rams-postseason-contenders

Vincent Verhei, an assistant editor for Football Outsiders was gracious enough to talk to Sports Illustrated and answer specific questions about the Los Angeles Rams prospects in the upcoming season.

Football Outsiders is a stat-based web site created by Aaron Schatz dedicated to providing football-specific information on the NFL. The analytics web site just published their annual Football Almanac, which provides a wealth of detailed breakdowns like personnel trends and running success rates on each team in the league.

If you haven’t picked up one up already, it’s recommended reading in order to prepare for the upcoming season. You can find out more information on how to purchase this year’s almanac here.

Verhei wrote this year’s Rams chapter for the almanac.

The following are five questions I asked Verhei after reading over this year’s chapter:

Williams: This year’s Football Outsiders almanac has the Rams at an 8.4-win projection with a 48 percent chance of making the playoffs. This prediction seems more bullish than other analytics publications on the Rams bouncing back from last year’s slide. What’s your reasoning for L.A. being considered a potential playoff team?

Verhei: The biggest reason is that the Rams were a Super Bowl-caliber team in two of the past three years. They were second in our efficiency rankings in both 2017 and 2018 before falling to 12th last year. Our computers see a pattern like that and assume that last year was the anomaly, and they’re likely to bounce back to their prior levels. That rebound ends up balancing out with the personnel losses and so the projection puts the Rams about where they were last year. Remember, they were very close to being a playoff team anyway, and probably would have won at least a wild-card berth if they played in the AFC. This year, they get a very soft schedule, getting to play the AFC East and NFC East. That should help them win a wild-card spot even if they don’t win the NFC West.

Williams: According to your report, the Rams were in base defense 34 percent of the time (No. 3 in the NFL) in 2019. And as you note, the Rams’ blitz percentage increased from 20.5 percent in 2018 to 27.7 percent in 2019. The Rams were up-and-down defensively last season, which led to a parting of ways from longtime NFL defensive coordinator Wade Phillips. How do you see L.A. changing defensively with the addition of first-year defensive coordinator and Vic Fangio protégé Brandon Staley? Also, what does it mean for frontline players like Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey?

Verhei: A couple of stats about Fangio’s defenses stick out as meaningful for the Rams. One, even though he uses a base 3-4, he tends to get a lot of sacks out of his defensive ends — Akiem Hicks in Chicago, and Shelby Harris and Derek Wolfe last year in Denver. That could be good news for Michael Brockers and Aaron Donald.

Two, he doesn’t like big blitzes — his defenses have ranked 25th or lower in blitzes with six pass-rushers or more in each of the past three seasons. (They have been about average in frequency of five-man blitzes.) Three, he really likes nickel formations, ranking in the top ten in use of five-DB sets for three years in a row. He hasn’t used dime formations very much, but that could change in 2020 given the dire state of L.A.’s linebackers.

Williams: The Rams have run 11 personnel (1 RB, 1TE, 3 WRs) the most of any team over the last three seasons during the Sean McVay era. However, as you note, from Week 10 on the Rams more than doubled their use of 12 (1 RB, 2TEs, 2 WRs) or 13 (1 RB, 3TEs, 1WR) personnel formations to 31.6 percent of plays – up from 14.3 percent in the first eight games. With two talented tight ends in Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett at the team’s disposal, do you see the Rams using more two-TE sets this year?

Verhei: I think McVay in his heart wants to use 11 personnel, and that’s why they drafted Van Jefferson in the second round when they had more obvious needs on the offensive line and at linebacker. That said, Higbee’s breakout gives them more flexibility than the Rams have had in the past. You might see them go three-wide all day against a defense like Seattle Seahawks that love to use base personnel, then go with two tight ends against a dime-heavy scheme like the New England Patriots.

Williams: By most QB statistics, Jared Goff regressed in 2019. But with $110 million in guaranteed money left on his deal, Goff isn’t going anywhere. Looking at stats from previous seasons, how does McVay get Goff to play like he did the first two years in his offense?

Verhei: Goff needs better protection. The Rams were 12th or better in pressure rate allowed in both 2017 and 2018, but fell to 22nd last year. That need to prevent pressure is especially true given that Goff has historically suffered a greater drop-off in performance when under pressure than most quarterbacks.

Williams: The Rams averaged 3.7 yards per carry on first down runs last year, No. 28 in the NFL last season. How can the addition of rookie Cam Akers help L.A. improve in that statistic?

Verhei: Akers has a rare combination of size and speed, running a 4.47s 40 at the combine at 212 pounds. That gave him the third-best speed score (40-yard time, adjusted for weight) of any running back at the combine, behind Jonathan Taylor and AJ Dillon. However, he didn’t get a lot of big runs at Florida State, only averaging 4.9 yards per carry; that’s a good number in the NFL, but pretty lousy in the ACC. He figures to make his biggest impact as a rookie in the passing game — he caught 69 passes in his Seminoles career.

Most touches by a rookie wide receiver drafted after Round 2 since 2009:

83 – Tyreek Hill
71 – Keenan Allen
65 – Mike Williams (TB)
63 – Diontae Johnson
63 – Cooper Kupp

— Mike Clay (@MikeClayNFL) August 14, 2020

from https://theramswire.usatoday.com/2020/08/14/rams-burgess-fuller-rookie-secondary-camp/

Burgess and Fuller are in a tough spot after their first NFL offseason was mostly virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic, but they’ve already made a strong impression on Johnson in the first two weeks of practice.

“They came in ready to go,” Johnson told reporters Thursday. “They must have come from good college programs or high school, whatever it is, but they came in ready to go. Great athletes, you can move them around, so I’m excited for their future.”

…

Johnson shared some insight on both rookies and what makes them good defenders.

“They’re both good guys. They’re smart, hard-working,” he said. “I will say, things that jumped out to me – Jordan is long. He can run. He looks like he could cover sideline-to-sideline. He can come out the post, so I’m excited to see what he could do. And Burgess, he’s versatile, he’s quick, he’s fast and I wasn’t expecting that either. I didn’t study them, obviously, but both of them, I’m very impressed with.”

Ranking all 32 teams by OL strength
NFL Network’s Cynthia Frelund ranks every NFL team by their offensive line strength heading into training camp.

She ranks Rams 20th.

vid link: https://www.nfl.com/videos/game-theory-ranking-all-32-teams-by-offensive-line-strength

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
The Rams have activated rookie OLB Terrell Lewis off of the COVID/reserve list, so he has gone through the entire process – positive test, isolation, asymptomatic return, now activation.

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Rams activate rookie linebacker Terrell Lewis from COVID-19 list https://t.co/TL6SI5IFnz

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 14, 2020