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merlin
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Let’s see they’ve got a 40 year old LT, who is defying Father Time. I say the rosary every time he takes the field.
There’s Corbett who couldn’t play Center in Cleveland, now being moved to, you guessed it, Center.
There’s Evans who was awful last year when he filled in at OG
Then there’s Havenstein and Edwards who were good at run blocking, less so at pass pro.
None of these guys look like they’ll be in a pro bowl. And those are your 5 best.
The other 6 are a bunch of question marks and obvious weaknesses. I mean, how do you look at someone with a straight face and say Demby is a good player.
I sure hope McVay doesn’t get an unpleasant surprise.
Demby is gone. He doesn't factor into the final 9.
Whit's the big gamble. But he is coming off what may be his finest season. Are they crazy? Maybe. But they're rolling the dice and chasing a ring.
Corbett's failures in Cleveland were in a different situation. He was a good all-around OG for us last year. He will be playing the pivot with a QB behind him who is a pre-snap guru, a guy who helped shape Ragnow into one of the league's best centers.
Hand wringing over Edwards is ridiculous. He's a fine young OG and is probably poised for a high end season. In fact losing him vs Green Bay was a catastrophe for our line.
We know who Hav is. He's a plus run game OT who needs help vs speed rushers. Better than average RT he's not a concern.
Not trying to minimize your concerns but if you look closely at this line I make two assumptions that I think are fair to make:
1. Whit is the big risk. If he goes down or sucks we're in trouble.
2. Corbs would not have been a good center candidate in front of Goff but in front of Stafford he'll be fine.
Rams will be filling RG in-house from among guys who have been in their pipeline. Filling OG is not the toughest thing to do. I would have preferred an iOL in the draft too and I also have questions re: Evans who has not impressed me. But this is not the massive meltdown level situation some seem to think it is. Teams make moves like this every season and have to in order to field a unit.
My view of the 2021 OL is more like yours. We don't know about Corbett at center but he was a decent guard and also a former college leader who was actually named a team captain as a redshirt sophomore (and that is not common). So he does have some promise. The question there might be the depth behind him.
We don't know about ROG but the candidates after Evans are promising (though I share your concerns about Evans). Anchrum and Brewer get good buzz for what are apparently very good reasons.
Whitworth is pushing the age barrier but this looks like it's more of a problem for 2022, not 2021.
Noteboom was a decent pass blocker last year replacing AW, so there is some depth (actually it is very rare for NFL teams in general to have really strong depth at LOT).
The questions with the OL are really about 2022. Whit is 41, NB is a free agent (and is he worth paying and keeping?), Corbett is a free agent (and while he too has some "is he worth keeping" questions, I think that's less true of him than it is of Noteboom--the problem is do you want to pay for a center's 2nd contract while also possibly having to pay at LOT also?)
In terms of how solid they are, I've said it before but here goes again. The 2020 OL was actually fairly solid, though not consistent--they got dominated in a few games. Will that continue? It might. But then maybe they are a more solid unit as a whole if OC and ROG work out.
Again, the issues are really about 2022. Now about those issues. You can find both a left OT and a center if you need to, but LOT complicates it because it is simply not as easy to find one of those, and the Rams options in terms of finding one are not stellar. But maybe they can do something like trade up into round 1, or maybe they will luck out and there will be a good free agent (that is not the kind of thing you can count on though).
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Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 05/14/2021 10:18AM by zn.
