Who will start on the Rams offensive line next season?

Though the Los Angeles Rams did not have a top-100 pick in the draft this year, it’s easy to forget that Les Snead’s top pick actually was an offensive lineman this time. Snead hasn’t had much success with his third round offensive line picks thus far, but let’s not call Logan Bruss’s career over just yet.

On that same note, we don’t know for sure that Joe Noteboom, L.A.’s third round pick in 2018, wouldn’t have had the breakout season that the Rams were expecting prior to tearing his Achilles in the sixth game of the year. At that point, the Rams were 3-3. Since then, they are 1-7.

Before even talking about the 2023 draft or the next round of free agency, who could Sean McVay start on the offensive line next year?

The Hold Steady Projection

LT - Joe Noteboom

LG - David Edwards (re-signed)

C - Brian Allen

RG - Coleman Shelton

RT - Rob Havenstein

Edwards is a free agent but it should be easy to bring him back if the Rams want to do that. Edwards has been out since Week 6, ending the starting left side of L.A.’s offensive line before they even hit their Week 7 bye. Edwards might cost between $5-$7 million per season, if not a little less.

And essentially that is all that Snead would have to do to bring back the same Week 1 offensive line that the Rams had this year. It wasn’t necessarily a bad plan, they just lost every single one of these players to injury, and many of their backups, other than Havenstein.

It’s an easy plan. It might work.

The Use Bruss Projection

LT - Joe Noteboom

LG - Coleman Shelton

C - Brian Allen

RG - Logan Bruss

RT - Rob Havenstein

If the Rams would rather spend that Edwards money elsewhere, they already have Bruss and could give him that opportunity. It’s more in line with what McVay tends to do with his interior offensive line starters. L.A. could bring back Matt Skura and Oday Aboushi at a low cost for depth that has gotten quite a lot of reps this season in the offense.

Tremayne Anchrum and Chandler Brewer could also provide depth on the interior, with A.J. Jackson back for another year as Noteboom’s backup. Max Pircher will enter his third year as the team’s International Pathway Program player.

The Save Money Projection

LT - A.J. Jackson

LG - Coleman Shelton

C - Matt Skura/Rookie

RG - Logan Bruss

RT - Rob Havenstein

Before getting too cute and cutting Havenstein too, let’s see how this line looks with just the injury releases of Noteboom and Allen. Those cuts save a combined $5.1 million, leaving dead money on the cap, but saving roster bonus payments. Jackson may have outplayed Noteboom this year too. The team hasn’t placed a high priority on center and Allen isn’t having the season that he had in 2021, even just accounting for the injury issues.

The Move Noteboom Projection

LT - A.J. Jackson

LG - Joe Noteboom

C - Brian Allen

RG - Coleman Shelton

RT - Rob Havenstein

Depth: Logan Bruss, Matt Skura, Tremayne Anchrum, A.J. Arcuri

Perhaps the team lets Edwards walk, moves Noteboom back inside, and brings back Skura as Allen’s backup. The team could draft an offensive lineman on day two, no problem, but the Rams still need better depth than they had this year. Clearly. So it can’t be L.A.’s only plan, to just “draft starting replacement rookies.” No, it doesn’t usually work that way. But the Rams could double down and still come back with a much better line in 2023.