While the drama swirling around Los Angeles Rams starting left tackle Alaric Jackson and whether, or not, he’ll face NFL disciplinary actions is disconcerting, the situation is not untenable. In just the past three years, L.A. has faced the problems of having one or more offensive line starters missing a number of times. It won’t be a new occurrence.
Last week, I wrote a piece on the depth of the L.A. offensive line, stating in the conclusion that I thought the Rams and Sean McVay could “easily fill
in and scheme around” a short term absence by Jackson. A forum member disagreed, stating “I don’t expect the Rams to be able to “easily” scheme around the massive hole at LT, especially with an older statuesque QB pushing 40YRs old back there…”
It offered a perfect chance to look back and research how often the Rams have had to overcome missing starters on the line and how the backups compared from a broad view. Here are the results after digging through Rams boxscores on Pro Football Reference and poring over game film on NFL+.
Week number, position, player, and game outcome in bold and italics. L.a.’s total yards gained and sacks given in bold alone.
2023
At the end of August, before the season began, the Rams traded for Kevin Dotson. It took the first three games for him to become oriented with the Rams offense and be installed at starting right guard. Joseph Noteboom started those first three games in his stead.
#4 LT Alaric Jackson – WIN 29-23 OT Indianapolis Colts
Noteboom started at left tackle and Dotson took over for good at right guard. Rams had 467 total yards and handed over two sacks.
#8 RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 20-43 Dallas Cowboys
Noteboom started at right tackle. Rams had 280 total yards and relinquished two sacks.
#9 RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 3-20 Green Bay Packers
Noteboom started at right tackle, more importantly quarterback Matthew Stafford sat out this game. Rams had 187 total yards and forfeited two sacks.
#15 RT Rob Havenstein – WIN 28-20 Washington Commanders
Noteboom started at right tackle. Rams had 445 total yards and coughed up two sacks.
#17 LT Alaric Jackson – WIN 26-25 New York Giants
Noteboom started at left tackle. Rams had 391 total yards and rendered four sacks.
2024
Center Coleman Shelton left in free agency and L.A. brought in Jonah Jackson. The plan to move guard Steve Avila into the pivot didn’t work out, putting Jackson in the middle. Jackson had struggles with injuries, pressing Round 6 draftee Beaux Limmer into season-long service at center.
#1 LT Alaric Jackson and RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 20-26 OT Detroit Lions
Joe Noteboom started at left tackle, Warren McClendon at right tackle, and Jonah Jackson at center. Noteboom left with injury late the 2nd quarter, replaced by AJ Arcuri. Steve Avila also left in the 2nd quarter with Jackson moving over a spot. Limmer stepped in at center and stayed the rest of the year. Rams had 387 total yards and gave up two sacks.
#2 LT Alaric Jackson and LG Steve Avila – LOSS 10-41 Arizona Cardinals
Noteboom started at RT, while Jonah Jackson stepped in at RG for Avila. Rams had 245 total yards and allowed five sacks.
#3 RG Steve Avila – WIN 27-24 San Francisco 49ers
Logan Bruss started at RG. Rams had 296 total yards and permitted three sacks.
#4 RG Steve Avila – LOSS 16-24 Chicago Bears
Bruss started his second straight game at RG. Rams had 322 total yards and granted three sacks.
#5 LG Steve Avila – LOSS 19-24 Green Bay Packers
Bruss started his 3rd straight game at LG. Rams had 370 total yards and were touched for three sacks.
#7 LG Steve Avila – WIN 20-15 Las Vegas Raiders
Avila did not return after the bye and Justin Dedich took over at LG. Rams had 259 total and conceded one sack.
#8 LG Steve Avila – WIN 30-20 Minnesota Vikings
Dedich subbed in at LG. Rams had 386 total yards and did not endure a sack.
#9 LG Steve Avila – WIN 26-20 OT Seattle Seahawks
Dedich started at LG. Rams had 366 total yards and were not sacked.
#10 C Beaux Limmer and RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 15-23 Miami Dolphins
Avila returned at RG, with Jonah Jackson at C and Joe Noteboom at RT. Rams had 327 total yards and acquiesced four sacks.
#11 RT Rob Havenstein – WIN 28-22 New England Patriots
Warren McClendon started at RT. Rams had 402 total yards with zero sacks.
#12 RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 20-37 Philadelphia Eagles
McClendon was again at RT. Rams had 290 total yards and suffered five sacks.
#17 RT Rob Havenstein – WIN 13-9 Arizona Cardinals
Joseph Noteboom started at RT. Rams had 189 total yards and no sacks.
#18 LT Alaric Jackson, RG Kevin Dotson, and RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 25-30 Seattle Seahawks
Noteboom started at LT, Jonah Jackson at RG, and Dylan McMahon at C. Rams had 403 total yards and surrendered three sacks.
2025
#2 LG Steve Avila – WIN 33-19 Tennessee Titans
Justin Dedich took over at LG. Rams had 439 yards and yielded one sack.
#3 RT Steve Avila – LOSS 26-33 Philadelphia Eagles
Dedich at LG. Rams had 356 total yards and relented one sack.
#4 LG Steve Avila – WIN 25 -20 Indianapolis Colts
Dedich at LG. Rams had 462 total yards and handed over three sacks.
#5 LG Steve Avila and RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 23-26 OT San Francisco 49ers
Dedich at LG and Warren McClendon at RT. Rams had 456 yards and caved on one sack.
#6 RT Rob Havenstein – WIN 17-3 Baltimore Ravens
McClendon in at RT. Rams had 241 total yards and buckled for two sacks
#7 RT Rob Havenstein – WIN 35-7 Jacksonville Jaguars
McClendon at RT. Rams had 271 yards without a sack.
#13 RT Rob Havenstein – LOSS 28-31 Carolina Panthers
The week McClendon took over RT for good from Havenstein. Rams had 379 yards and capitulated on two sacks.
#17 LT Alaric Jackson and RG Kevin Dotson – LOSS 25-27 Atlanta Falcons
DJ Humphries started at LT and Justin Dedich at RG. Rams had 363 total yards and knuckled under for three sacks.
#18 RG Kevin Dotson – WIN 37-20 Arizona Cardinals
Dedich started at RG. Rams had 395 yards and budged on one sack.
Parsing the numbers
Out of 51 regular season games over the last three seasons, the Rams had one or more starting offensive out in 27 of them. The Rams went 14-13 in those games, a win percentage of .518, still on the plus side of the ledger, but cannot match Sean McVay’s career .617 win rate. Two of those games were almost “gimme” losses, Week 9 of 2023 when an injured Matthew Stafford was replaced by Brett Rypien and Week 18 of 2024 where McVay sat the bulk of his starters in the season finale.
When figuring total yards and scoring, the L.A. offense did not show much of a loss of production. Overall the Rams averaged 356 yards per game and scored 25.1, with at least one starting offensive lineman missing, those numbers only dropped a small margin, 354 yards per game and 23.4 points. Sacks are on a different path, the Rams have allowed 85 sacks over the past three years with 51 of them, 60 percent allowed by a non-intact starting group. Most of those (29) coming in 2024, when L.A. only had only four games where all the starters were a go.
Conclusions
It is no surprise that not having the starters in the lineup leads to a degeneration of production, but the question was “Can Sean McVay scheme around missing starters on the offensive line?” The won/lost record is nothing to write home about and sack rate trends high, but the game to game offensive yardage output and scoring didn’t show significant differences. That reads like the offense, from an overall view, is pretty close to running on all cylinders and the Rams are still in every game, even with one or more offensive linemen out.
Even though I’ve said “McVay can scheme around it” a hundred times, after watching game film of the backups, I don’t think he makes a concerted effort to do it. Maybe some minor tweaks, but he expects the backups to step into any voids and compete. These simple numbers appear to somewhat back it up. McVay does not like to get away from his system, week-to-week minor revisions aside.
Bottom line is, if Alaric Jackson does get suspended, two games or more, recent history says the Sean McVay offense should still be productive with a backup in place.
