Rams’ top pick in 2022 draft is changing positions

The Los Angeles Rams drafted Logan Bruss with their first pick in the 2022 draft in the hopes that he would play guard next to Rob Havenstein, but a year later it appears that he will be backing up Havenstein instead. Rams head coach Sean McVay noted this week that Bruss will stay at right tackle, where he started getting reps in OTAs because of a lack of depth, and not move back inside.

This also means that Logan Bruss did not win a position battle at right guard, a disappointing turn of events for his career so far.

McVay expects Bruss to “probably” stay at right tackle full-time instead of competing for the starting job at right guard—currently Tremayne Anchrum seems to be the front runner for that role. Bruss started playing more right tackle during offseason workouts, which was his primary position at Wisconsin before the Rams converted him to guard, and minicamp when the team faced a shortage of tackles. He impressed coaches then, and now it seems that position change will stick. Bruss is coming off of a season-ending injury that he suffered during the preseason opener a year ago.

Unfortunately for Bruss’ prospects of making it onto the field playing right tackle, he’s almost surely stuck behind the reliable Rob Havenstein. Havenstein has rarely missed games outside of the 2019 season where he was shutdown and replaced by Bobby Evans, who has bounced around a bit but is now out of the league.

Rodrigue also mentioned Joe Noteboom as a contender for the right guard spot with Anchrum, though we’ve only seen Noteboom play left tackle and left guard at the pro level. It seems Alaric Jackson is handedly winning the competition for the left tackle spot, and Coleman Shelton is pulling away from Brian Allen at center.

The offensive line is starting to come into focus after two weeks of training camp, and barring injury your starting five is taking shape as the following:

LT - Alaric Jackson

LG - Steve Avila

C - Coleman Shelton

RG - Tremayne Anchrum

RT - Rob Havenstein

The following should be considered speculation, but in terms of backups it’s probably safe to say that Noteboom would replace either Jackson or Avila if they went down with injury. Shelton could shift over to right guard if something happened to Anchrum (he suffered a season-ending injury a year ago), and Brian Allen would play center if Shelton missed time or moved to guard. Seemingly Logan Bruss is the reserve right tackle—the team also has Warren McClendon who the Rams drafted in the fifth round out of Georgia. McClendon started training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list but was able to practice during the second week of camp.

It’ll be interesting to see how this group performs over the preseason. We may not see Shelton or Havenstein in the exhibition games, but we should see Avila and possibly Anchrum as they prepare for the regular season. It will also be important for depth players to make impressions on the coaching staff and prove they deserve to be kept around. It all starts on Saturday, August 12th when the Rams host the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.