Andrew Whitworth held down the left tackle position for five years with the Rams, but his retirement this offseason led to a change. In stepped Joe Noteboom, fresh off signing a $40 million extension.
Noteboom unfortunately tore his Achilles in Week 6 and will miss the rest of the season, thrusting Alaric Jackson into the starting role. Jackson excelled in Noteboom’s place against the Panthers two weeks ago, and he’s unquestionably the Rams’ best option at that position.
Sean McVay committed to Jackson playing left tackle full-time and has the utmost confidence in his ability to play at a high level. It helps that McVay sees left tackle as Jackson’s most natural position on the field.
“I thought he did a really nice job. I think, if you said natural position fit, I think that’s probably his most natural position is at tackle. What I do think he’s benefited from playing at guard where things happen quicker, got to be able to get your second step in the ground,” McVay said Monday. “I think that helped him for some of the things that will occur outside, where things seem to be sped up a little bit more with a lot of the things that you’re seeing based on the landscape of the league, particularly for those inside players. So I thought his length, I thought his comfort in his pass sets, his understanding of where he fits within the framework of some of the stuff in the run game, I was really pleased with him. I think it says a lot about him to be able to get so many reps at the right guard spot for the last month almost exclusively, And then just to seamlessly slide out the left tackle and be as sharp as he was in some instances when you’re going against some really good players from that rush that we saw from the Panthers, so very encouraged. I think it’ll be good for him to be able to kind of settle in and try to play really good ball there this week.”
Jackson joined the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2021, playing 61 offensive snaps as a rookie. He’s played 312 snaps so far this season, but those have mostly been at guard in wake of the rash of injuries suffered by several other players.
His best position is left tackle so it’ll be great to see how he performs at that spot the rest of the year – and hopefully he can stay healthy for the remaining 11 games.
