Unbelievable: Sean McVay Said Choosing Los Angeles Rams Was The Biggest Mistake He Has Ever Made….
The Los Angeles Rams didn’t enter the offseason planning to re-shuffle their interior offensive line, but that’s how things unfolded.
After center Coleman Shelton voided his contract, ultimately signing with Chicago, the Rams re-signed Pro Bowler Kevin Dotson and handed big money to ex-Detroit Lion Jonah Jackson, but head coach Sean McVay had three stud guards and no center. The natural move, if unexpected at the outset, was to push Steve Avila from guard to center, where he played more than 1,000 snaps at TCU.
At the NFL’s Annual League Meeting this week in Orlando, Fla., McVay confirmed Avila would indeed move to center.
“That was really never part of the plan until you realize, ‘Wow, Coleman Shelton voided his contract,’ ” McVay said via the team’s official website. “We always wanted to get Coleman back. And then by nature of just kind of investing and spending some time evaluating the guard market, you re-sign Kevin (Dotson) ahead of the two-day negotiating period, and then you realize, okay, wow, I had always just assumed he (Jonah Jackson) was gonna go back to Detroit. And then you realize, wow, we might actually have the opportunity to acquire him as well. Hey, Kevin’s at right guard, Jonah played left guard, and oh, by the way, this stud rookie left guard that you had, he was an excellent center at TCU.”
A second-round pick, Avila shined during his rookie season at left guard showing the ability to move defenders and play solidly against the pass. His athleticism on the interior allows the Rams to move him to center with little worry of things falling apart.
“He’s got an amazing athleticism for a big player,” McVay said. “He’s got great contact balance, you can see his ability to take second-level angles of departure, fit second-level blocks, play in space. That was one of the things that I went back and evaluated. I think he’s got the natural ability to play on the left or the right side of the line, be another lefty center for us.”
Quarterback is not a position that the L.A. Rams really need to address in the 2024 NFL Draft thanks in part to the Jimmy Garoppolo signing. Jimmy G jokes aside, there is legitimate stability under center for head coach Sean McVay. However, could LA possibly draft Matthew Stafford’s successor in April?
Rather than address a position of need, NFL.com analyst Charles Davis has the Rams drafting Oregon star Bo Nix with the No. 19 pick in a new 2024 mock draft.“With Matthew Stafford heading into his age-36 season, Sean McVay finds his next pupil to groom for the QB1 role,” Davis wrote in his March 28 mock draft.
Nix has already met Lakers icon Lebron James so Hollywood might be a good fit for him.
Joking aside, LA taking Nix would make some sense — just nowhere that early in the draft. In all fairness, the Rams might be wise to invest at the QB3 spot and develop someone behind Stafford in the meantime. The team sorta did this in the 2023 draft but that of course did not turn out well.
Last year, the Rams made a ill-advised move in drafting Georgia QB Stetson Bennett as the possible heir apparent to Stafford. The two-time national champion ended up sitting out his entire rookie season due to personal issues, leaving LA with the hapless Brett Rypien at backup. I think we all remember how that turned out.
The main thing Nix has going is that he’s accurate. During his final season with the Ducks, Nix posted a 45-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio and set an NCAA-record with a 77.4 completion percentage. He also started an astonishing 61 collegiate games.
While there may be some relative unknowns prospect-wise in the draft — cough J.J. McCarthy cough — there is plenty of film on Nix to know what he’s about. After 61 freaking games, I would certainly hope so. The Oregon product is admittedly a film junkie and appears to carry himself as a player who could handle the franchise QB role well.
Unfortunately, Nix has gotten a bad rap from draft analysts for being limited in his physical abilities and apparent short passing prowess. Despite finishing second in all the FBS behind Heisman winner Jayden Daniels in yards per attempt, Nix isn’t viewed in the same class as Daniels. Perhaps the “optimal playing conditions” he experienced at Oregon are what has held him back as a prospect.
As much as I like Nix, the Rams are not the fit for him. LA needs to get someone like Jared Verse or Byron Murphy II rather than fall under the spell of another experienced signal caller. Nix will most likely get drafted too early by team desperate for a quarterback — looking at you Sean Payton and the Broncos.
The Rams have a borderline contending roster and need to maximize it. Drafting Bo is not the answer. Unless (knock on wood) Matthew Stafford’s play falls off a cliff, there is no reason for LA to take a QB so early or at all.
The Los Angeles Rams have a very important draft coming up in April. With Aaron Donald retiring, but Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp still on the roster, the Rams will be looking to capitalize on the current window while also looking to build up the team for the future. After a strong 2023 draft, general manager Les Snead and co. will look to take that momentum into 2024’s class.
While film is the best tool when evaluating prospects, one popular form of athletic testing analysis has been the rise of RAS or Relative Athletic Score. Much like most analytics, RAS is a tool and is great when it comes to quantifying testing results. It’s not the end all be all with prospects, but is an easy to read tool and can be used to compare prospects and their athletic testing. Going through RAS’ database, here are the 10 most interesting athletic comparisons for the Rams.
There’s never going to be another Aaron Donald on the field, but from an athletic standpoint, Mekhi Wingo compares pretty closely. Both players are almost identical and size and when it comes to their explosiveness and initial quickness, they are also similar. Wingo and Donald had identical 10-yard splits in the 40-yard dash and their verticals were within half an inch of each other. Donald’s strength pops off in the bench press, but overall they compare well.
Simply based off of the athleticism in this draft class, this could end of being one of the all-time great tackle classes in NFL history. Olu Fashanu compares athletically to D’Brickashaw Ferguson and players like Tyler Guyton and Patrick Paul are athletically close to Jonathan Ogden. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how that translates on the field, but the traits are encouraging. In this case, Mims compares well to Andrew Whitworth who had a lot of success on the blind side, especially with the Rams. Both were 6’7 and close to 340-pounds. The 10 and 20-yard splits are within milliseconds of each other and the broad jumps are almost identical. It’s worth noting that Taliese Fuaga also compares athletically to Whitworth.
Parsons has been one of the most dominant defensive players in the NFL since being drafted by the Dallas Cowboys and it’s clear to see why. Parsons was an insane athlete coming out of Penn State. With that said, there is another great athlete for the Nittany Lions who could be taken in the first round this year. That player is Chop Robinson. From a speed perspective, Robinson and Parsons are pretty close. While Parsons was faster in the 40, their 20-yard splits were within hundredths of a second of each other. Robinson’s 1.53-second 10-yard split was also faster than Parsons’ and his lateral movement was on display with a better shuttle.
