The Los Angeles Rams have a lot of experience at most positions, but the offensive line is seriously lacking in that department. Aside from Andrew Whitworth, no one on the O-line – starters and backups included – has been a starter for more than four years.
Rob Havenstein has 59 starts in his career, Austin Blythe has started 18 and neither Brian Allen nor Joseph Noteboom has started a single game in the NFL. Their backups have even less experience: Bobby Evans and David Edwards are rookies, Jamil Demby wasn’t active for a single game as a rookie and Aaron Neary is suspended. Newcomer Coleman Shelton has never played a game, either.
It’s a group of players with a lot of potential, but the Rams shouldn’t feel very comfortable putting any of their backups in a game if a starter were to get injured.
As for which of the second-stringers will be the first guy off the bench, Sean McVay seems to have settled on one of the rookies. Edwards improved steadily in the preseason, showing he can play left tackle and guard.
“There’s a good chance that it would be,” McVay said of Edwards being the first player off the bench. “It really depends on, hopefully the situation doesn’t come up, where somebody goes down. David is a guy that’s demonstrated some position – flex, both from a guard standpoint and the tackle on both sides of the ball. Jamil Demby, it’s like finding ‘Where’s Waldo?’ in some of these preseason games. He’s all over the front. Then Bobby Evans has shown some good things. With our eight offensive linemen and then you add in the one we just signed yesterday, those are the things that we’ll continue to evaluate. David has a good chance of being in that situation.”
Evans really struggled in the preseason, particularly at right tackle. Like Edwards, he can play guard, too, but he has a lot of developing to do before he should be considered a potential starter. Demby was best at guard this summer, but he had a lot of trouble at center in game action.
Edwards looked like the best backup available for the Rams, so it should come as no surprise that he’d be the first number called if an injury at guard or tackle were to occur. He doesn’t necessarily instill a lot of confidence, though.
