For the fourth straight season, the Rams are expected to have a new starter in the middle of their offensive line. John Sullivan held the role in 2017 and 2018, followed by Brian Allen in 2019 and Austin Blythe last season.
Now it’s Austin Corbett’s turn.
Though he hasn’t officially won the starting job over Allen and Coleman Shelton yet, Corbett is projected to be the team’s center in Week 1. On the first day of training camp, Sean McVay was encouraged by his play, particularly his communication and command in the middle of the offense.
“I will go back and watch. I was really encouraged with the communication, the command, the poise that he displayed,” McVay said after practice. “Thought he was accurate in terms of just some of the gun snaps like we had talked about. So, it’s a good first day for him. We had minimal full speed reps, but it seemed like he did a really nice job in those ones that we did have.”
It’s not much to go off of right now, considering the Rams haven’t even put pads on yet and aren’t going full speed on all of their reps, but it’s good to see some positive reviews in the early going.
Corbett said himself that he’s comfortable at that spot, too, having spent some time there with the Browns after being a second-round pick by Cleveland.
“It’s not new to me by any means,” he said this week. “I’m very comfortable at it and this offseason period in OTAs, it was a really good time to get on the same page as Stafford and the rest of the offensive line and how they want things communicated.”
We’ll learn a lot more when the pads come on and the Rams hold joint practices with the Raiders and Cowboys, but so far so good for Corbett.
