Fear Not, Les Snead Has Confidence in the Rams’ Young O-Line
Posted by:
Luke Schnake in
National Football League July 31, 2015
The Rams are no strangers to having young squads heading into training camp, often sporting one of the youngest rosters in the NFL for the last few years.
Rams GM Les Snead
Now, it’s the offensive line’s turn to represent the youth.
2015 third round draftees Rob Havenstein (Iowa) and Jamon Brown (Louisville) will most likely start at right tackle and right guard respectively, while the center position will be up for grabs between Tim Barnes, Barrett Jones, and Demetrius Rhaney.
Of those three, Barnes is the most NFL seasoned, with 14 games under his belt with Jones second at seven and Rhaney with none after spending his rookie year on the injured reserve list with a knee injury.
While some would write off the group as too unschooled to succeed, GM Les Snead begs to differ.
He’s seen success with a young line under O-Line coach Paul Boudreau.
“I think (success) is realistic. Obviously you guys have chatted about it, Coach (Boudreau) is really good. He’s done it…I was in Atlanta with him back with Harvey Dahl and Tyson Claybo…Harvey Dahl wasn’t Harvey Dahl yet. He was a college free agent who had bounced around on practice squads.” Snead said.
“(Boudreau) is really good and he’s got his hands full, but I do think what’s interesting about this group is they’re a group that’s played a lot of football…That experience helps. Whether it’s big Rob (Havenstein) with four years starting in the Big Ten, I mean that’s a lot of football and a lot of quality experience.”
As for translating college experience to the NFL in such a short time, Snead says it’s an easy enough solution.
With 14 games under his belt at center, Tim Barnes has the most experience of the three candidates for the position.
“It’s the simple answer of reps, reps, reps.” Snead said. “You’re gonna get it in practice…I think going to practice against the Cowboys will be big because we’ve got four preseason games and that’s a fifth opportunity to work against people you don’t know…I haven’t chatted with Jeff, but I think there’s some plans of playing those guys longer in preseason games.”
The young O-line will have their hands full facing opposing defensive linemen hell-bent on dirtying Nick Foles’ jersey. One of the bigger story lines in training camp will be how the offense performs versus their own seasoned D-line in Earth City.
“I think anybody will tell you that you want practice situations to be more stressful than games.” Snead said. “That’s probably easier said than done, but I do think that lining up and going against that group, when you do get to the games you’ll say, ‘Okay, I’m good here.’”
Running the ball will be a big part of the Rams’ game in 2015 and run blocking is usually considered an easier assignment for young offensive guards and tackles. Snead said this is especially the case in the NFC West and hopes blocking for runners will help the group gel more quickly.
“To be strong at the line of scrimmage, especially in the run game…It wasn’t just, ‘let’s go young,’ it was that we need to get this O-L where it gets continuity and let’s grow together because the more games these guys play together in seasons, the better we’re gonna be.” Snead said.
“It’s just happened that this year’s draft…We thought there was some quality guys and we could maybe address our goal of building a unit of where we can grow them together…If this draft wouldn’t have been that deep (at offensive line) then maybe we would’ve gone about it a different way.”