It’s a good thing that Matthew Stafford isn’t left-handed, because the right side of the L.A. Rams offensive line has had the worst pass protection duo in the league through three weeks. Kevin Dotson’s name has been the first one proposed as having a pass protection issue this season, and by some accounts he had the worst performance of any Rams offensive player against the Broncos.
On this play against Denver’s elite defensive tackle Zach Allen, you can see that Dotson may as well not exist:
Allen practically waves him away like a cloud of smoke and is immediately barreling down on Stafford. Dotson has allowed a pressure on over 8% of his pass blocking reps this season, according to PFF.
One play doesn’t make a player bad, and certainly I think clips like the one get overblown and taken out of context. But if I’m Dotson or Dotson’s agent, knowing that free agency is on the horizon in 2027, I know that what teams are going to be looking at is whatever data and film that they have readily available. The data hasn’t been in Dotson’s favor yet this season, including this chart:
According to this, Dotson has the sixth-worst successful pass block rate among all guards in the NFL.
PFF has him ranked 66th out of 72 in pass protection.
No matter how good the opponents are that Dotson has had to deal with, like Allen who could be an All-Pro, it would be good for the Rams guard to start stacking positive games in the future. Especially given that he may not be getting as much help from his right as he would like to have.
Warren McClendon is ranked 57th out of 70 tackles in pass protection. Here in the tackles chart, he is ranked in the bottom-third for successful pass block reps:
According to PFF, McClendon has allowed six QB hits, which is the most by any tackle in the NFL through three games. McClendon was blamed for seven pressures and two penalties against Denver.
Between McClendon and Dotson, just those two have allowed 38-year-old Stafford to be hit nine times in three games.
Stafford was sacked four times by the Broncos, and the only reason he’s probably not sacked at a higher rate generally is thanks to his experience of sensing pressure and getting the ball out quickly. Stafford may be doing more work to keep himself healthy than the right side of his offensive line.
So what are the Rams going to do about it?
Rookie Keagen Trost is the most interesting name to keep an eye on this season, but he is on short-term IR right now. He is eligible to return in Week 5, although it isn’t likely that Trost is going to be on the active gameday roster any time soon unless a player gets injured. Trost may go the entire season without playing, but his main objective by the team has always been to be ready for 2027.
Dotson, McClendon, Coleman Shelton, and Steve Avila are all free agents.
Re-signing all four is a longshot, and at this rate re-signing Dotson for the amount of money he probably wants to command is unlikely. Dotson had been one of the highest-paid guards in the NFL but that doesn’t seem fair anymore.
Avila is also younger, and since he’s performing better seems to be a better bet for where some of L.A.‘s offensive line budget will go next.
McClendon is a tougher choice because right tackles are harder to find. Plus, it’s not as though A.J. Jackson is great on the field or totally reliable as a person.
There’s just only so many resources that the Rams can throw at the offensive line, between trade assets and money, and they already spent a lot of next year’s on acquiring Myles Garrett. There won’t be a first-round pick spent on an offensive lineman in 2027 since L.A. doesn’t have one. They spent a lot of their money this year on Aaron Donald and Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson and Garrett.
So Dotson and McClendon will need to step up.
Perhaps this is just a minor blip on the radar. It could be just that. However, one thing about radar blips: You’d be stupid to not keep track of where they end up.
