LOS ANGELES — As the Rams opened practice on Thursday, their last before a long weekend and the actual game prep that will begin on Monday, right tackle Rob Havenstein was on the sidelines getting a sweat in.
The veteran wasn’t in pads, but he was working on his drop steps and sweating in the Woodland Hills sun alongside former teammate and retired Ram Andrew Whitworth.
Havenstein hasn’t practiced in four weeks after injuring his ankle. And as the Rams look ahead to Monday, their first day preparing for the season opener against the Detroit Lions, there remains uncertainty about whether or not Havenstein will be ready to practice.
“We’re hoping. He’s making tremendous progress,” head coach Sean McVay said Thursday. “I won’t know that until the next couple days.”
The Rams’ offensive line as a whole remains in a similar state of flux.
Currently, the Rams have seven offensive linemen on their active roster. Six healthy ones, if you exclude Havenstein. Starting left tackle Alaric Jackson began his two-game suspension this week, and backups K.T. Leveston and Conor McDermott are on injured reserve for at least four weeks.
The Rams have three offensive linemen on their practice squad, but A.J. Arcuri is the only tackle among the group to reinforce the edge. His lone NFL experience came in 2022 as he started one game, part of 12 different OL combinations the Rams ran through in that injury-plagued year.
So McVay expects the Rams to add some help to the position group ahead of Week 1, and the team began that process by releasing running back Zach Evans from the practice squad on Thursday.
“We’ve had some dialogue with some guys that have been cuts, whether it’s adding to the practice squad or the [53-man roster],” McVay said. “I’ll probably have some updates from [General Manager Les Snead] here shortly.”
Even with the healthy starters that the Rams have available, there’s still some tinkering going on.
Left guard Jonah Jackson, who himself missed a chunk of camp with a shoulder injury, has been working at center in practice while Steve Avila, who spent the spring transitioning to center, is back at left guard, the position he played as a rookie.
Part of that is cross training, as the Rams need no reminder that injuries can occur along the front. But McVay also said there’s a “good possibility” that Jackson plays center against the Lions as the Rams seek their best five-man combination, especially with the possibility of being down two starting tackles.
“The beauty of it is you’ve got two guys that can play center or guard with Steve or Jonah. Jonah hasn’t been out here so we really wanted to make sure that if that was the route we went that we ended up giving him all the reps especially because of the noise and the atmosphere,” McVay explained. “He said that’s more of his natural position and he was great about it because he said we’re playing him like a guard anyways.”
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So the Rams continue to mix and match, while waiting to see if Havenstein will be ready for Detroit.
McVay said that, while he is confident in backups Warren McClendon and Joe Noteboom to fill in at tackle, he is also comfortable with Havenstein playing in Week 1 despite all the time he’s missed, given his experience in the league.
But if he’s unable to play, the Rams will have to push on, with the guys that are available and possibly a reinforcement or two.
“Those things are going to happen and every year some group’s going to get hit a little bit more,” offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said. “We’ll figure it out. We have a lot of guys that wouldn’t get all those reps that we talked about a month ago are getting those reps. We’ll figure it out. We’ll be good to go.”
