It’s easy to look at how the Rams’ season has gone and blame their struggles on a “Super Bowl hangover.” But their problems go way beyond any sort of hangover from their championship season a year ago.
The biggest issue has been the offensive line, and it’s not necessarily the team’s fault. Every starting O-lineman except for one has missed at least four games this season, and several backups have gone down with injuries, as well.
In total, they’ve started 13 different linemen this year, and 11 of them have started more than one game. The Rams haven’t had the same five starting offensive linemen in multiple games this season, going with 11 different combinations in 11 games.
That’s a record for the Super Bowl era, which dates back to 1966.
The #Rams are the only team in the Super Bowl era to use a different starting 5-man OL combo in each of their 1st 11 games of a season.#RamsHouse pic.twitter.com/2oToIRUizw
— Jeff Kerr (@JeffKerrCBS) November 30, 2022
You can blame a regression from Matthew Stafford, a lack of help for Cooper Kupp at wide receiver or a struggling pass rush outside of Aaron Donald, but the biggest problem for the Rams has been the offensive line and the unprecedented number of injuries.
All the depth in the world couldn’t have saved the Rams from the issues they’ve had up front this season. It’s just been a historically tough year on the injury front at one of the most important positions in football.
