The Los Angeles Rams have been somewhat bitten by the injury bug this summer. With multiple injuries along the offensive line, recent shuffles have forced previous left guard Jonah Jackson to move to center in an effort to find the best combination of five lineman that LA can have on the field Sunday night.
For Jackson and quarterback Matthew Stafford it’s a reunion of sorts. Detroit is not just LA’s 2024 opening opponent, but also both players’ former team. In fact, Jackson was actually Stafford’s center in Detroit for some of the 2020 season.
“It’s good having him back there,” Jackson said of Stafford, smiling, “he’s the wizard. He can figure it out for you if you don’t know.”
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25608237/1292745917.jpg)
With less than a week to get acclimated it’s still a big ask of Jackson, however, speaking after practice this week Jackson seemed comfortable with making the move.
“I started out playing football at center, high school I was the center, college I played a good amount of center,” Jackson said. “In the league, in a pinch, I played center. Now, I probably would have made the move earlier in my career had our center in Detroit (Frank Ragnow) not been All-Pro and Pro Bowl. It’s something that’s not new to me, something I’m ready to play.”
Jackson added that even though he technically was slated to play left guard this season, Rams offensive line coach Ryan Wendell, a former center himself, consistently would quiz all offensive lineman with any potential chance of playing center, leading to Jackson’s confidence in being able to make all the calls even on short notice.
“It’s not like it’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, he’s now learning these calls,’” Jackson said. “Wendy doesn’t call on Steve (Avila) in the room. He’ll call on me, he’ll call on Beaux (Limmer) … anybody who is going to be playing the center position, potentially, so we can all be dialed in. In an instance where you do need a center, it’s like nothing changes.”
LA’s new center will be making the call in one of the current loudest environment's in the NFL. Detroit was rocking in Stafford’s return to the city that drafted him and it shouldn’t be any different for round two. Luckily for Los Angeles, their quarterback seems to thrive in the most-hostile of situations.
“Do I feel the crowd? Yeah, I feel the crowd, 100 percent,” Stafford said Wednesday. “Motivating factor. Love it. I’m one of the guys that walks into the opposing stadium and everybody has their headphones on, I don’t. I want to hear all of it. I want to smell it. I want to feel like it’s football. And that’s a part of football, especially going to an away game. That stuff just motivates me.”
“It’ll be a big challenge for us, a hostile environment,” Stafford said. “We know that. We did it last year. (We) understand what it takes to go in there and operate and try to play at a high level, but looking forward to the season starting and a new challenge.”
Stafford and Jackson are both human, so extra emotions heading into their return to Detroit have to be expected. Still the Rams are looking to get their revenge this time around and their veteran quarterback may have said it best this week: “Just because something happened a year ago, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again.” The Rams have been hyped as contenders this offseason and now control their own destiny, they will look to prove the hype is real against the Lions Week 1.
