The Los Angeles Rams are going to look a lot different across the board in 2023 compared to the 2022 season. One area where the Rams could make alterations is along the offensive line and that could include Brian Allen losing his starting job at the center position.
The Athletic’s Jourdan Rodrigue recently spoke about Coleman Shelton getting first-team reps at center during OTAs over Allen in the most recent “11 Personnel” podcast. Shelton continues to get reps with the starters at the beginning of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday, while Allen was getting reps with Brett Rypien at quarterback.
Rodrigue revealed that the Rams want to get bigger in the interior of their offensive line in hopes to improve the rushing attack after hiring Mike LaFleur as the team’s new offensive coordinator. This makes sense as the Rams took Steve Avila early in this year’s draft and Logan Bruss early in last year’s draft.
Steve Avila: working with the first team
Brian Allen: working with the…third team?
(photos via Rams) pic.twitter.com/x7UeAiPNuL
— Cameron DaSilva (@camdasilva) June 14, 2023
Allen missed the entire 2020 season due to injury, but he’s made 32 starts since the 2019 campaign. Injuries have been an issue for the former fourth-round pick, including missing 10 games in 2022.
Meanwhile, Shelton made 13 starts for the Rams last season, and he has experience at guard and center. And connecting the dots that Rodrigue mentioned, Shelton is bigger than Allen, making him more of an ideal fit for what Sean McVay and LaFleur want to accomplish in the interior.
Earlier this offseason, the Rams reworked Allen’s contract to save $3.2 million in cap space. Releasing Allen wouldn’t create any cap savings for the Rams right now and it would give the team another $3.05 million in dead money.
There’s a chance that the Rams just want Allen to inherit a depth role with his experience and knowledge of the offense. On the other hand, if they could find a trade partner, Allen would free up $2 million in cap space, with a $1.05 million dead cap charge.
McVay and LaFleur have both mentioned that the Rams are going to deploy the best five offensive linemen in 2023, so there is plenty of time before they’ll have to decide who to start. But at the moment, it appears that Allen could be handing over the starting center job to Shelton or someone else this season.
