Brandon Thorn of Trench Warfare continues to pound the table for the L.A. Rams offensive line. After previously mentioning on The Athletic Football Show that he sees the Rams as being a top-5 OL in some respects, he also wrote on his Trench Warfare newsletter that he sees the team having the biggest breakout of any other in the NFC.
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“Head coach Sean McVay has gradually morphed his running game from a zone-based scheme to a gap-heavy one with Duo as the central concept. This has emphasized more size, power and differing skill-sets than what the Rams have leaned towards in recent years that has led to their interior being totally revamped over the last two off-seasons.”
Thorn adds that the Rams went from the 24th-heaviest to the 3rd-heaviest offensive line since the start of the 2023 season by adding the likes of Kevin Dotson and Jonah Jackson at guard. He notes that Dotson had a true “breakout” season in 2023 and is “one of the most physically imposing guards in the league”.
One question mark for Thorn is A.J. Jackson’s pass protection on the left side, but that the other four players next to him could mitigate those issues because of their ability to pass protect.
“McVay’s transformation from having a smaller, quicker line operating in a zone heavy scheme should be complete this season and the pieces are in place for the results to lead to an elite ground game in 2024.”
Will the Rams be a top-3 offensive line in the NFL this season?
The team has drafted and paid the offensive line like that’s what they want and expect, certainly in a way that does not resemble how McVay and Les Snead operated in their first five or six years together. The team did start off that regime by signing Andrew Whitworth and John Sullivan, but the emphasis on guards and centers now is certainly a change from the past. And for good reason. Protecting and blocking the interior could actually become more significant than blocking and protecting the edges. As anyone who has faced Aaron Donald can attest to, pressure up the middle is scarier than pressure that has to come all the way around the ends.
From McVay and Matthew Stafford’s perspective especially, Dotson, Avila, and Jackson are hopefully here to stop it.
