When the Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay first took the reigns of our favorite franchise, the offensive line was in shambles – and that reflected in Rams QB Jared Goff’s performance. You could tell that there was a concerted effort by McVay and Rams GM Les Snead to drastically improve the unit.
The Rams brought in veterans John Sullivan and Andrew Whitworth to shore up the offensive line and it immediately payed massive dividends. The Rams jumped to the top of the NFC West standings in 2017 behind stellar offensive line play.
When paired with RT Rob Havenstein, the Rams had an elite pair of tackles who could keep Goff’s jersey clean. They’ve often earned recognition for a lot of the Rams offensive success and this offseason is no different.
Here is what Pro Football Focus had to say about the Rams tackles:
5. ANDREW WHITWORTH & ROB HAVENSTEIN, LOS ANGELES RAMS
Whitworth has been nothing short of outstanding throughout his illustrious NFL career, earning overall grades above 80.0 in 10 of his 13 seasons in the PFF era (2006-18). Last season, the long-time standout showed absolutely no signs of slowing down; his 88.5 pass-blocking grade ranked third among 82 qualifying tackles, and his 78.4 run-blocking grade ranked second.
And who did Whitworth rank second to in run-blocking grade? Well, that would be none other than teammate and right tackle Rob Havenstein, who earned a league-leading 82.5 run-blocking grade off the back of a mightily impressive 12.7% impact run-block percentage that also ranked first among his peers. While Havenstein wasn’t quite as impressive as Whitworth in terms of pass protection, his 75.2 pass-blocking grade was still good enough to finish in the top third among players at the position.