Tag: Rob Havenstein

Rams restructure Rob Havenstein’s deal, create $3.1M in cap space

The Rams reworked Rob Havenstein’s contract to free up more than $3 million in cap space.

With the NFL salary cap shrinking this year, it’s been a challenge for the Rams to stay under the limit – especially after acquiring Matthew Stafford, extending Leonard Floyd and adding DeSean Jackson. They’ve been among the teams with the least amount of cap space all year, but they made a move to free up some money Saturday.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the Rams restructured Rob Havenstein’s contract to save about $3.072 million this year. That was after the Rams were only $151,989 under the cap.

With the trade deadline coming up on Nov. 2, the Rams could be creating some space to make a move. They could use help at running back, inside linebacker and cornerback, while the tight end position is suddenly looking weaker after Johnny Mundt suffered a torn ACL in Week 6.

Sean McVay said recently not to expect any splash moves, but never rule anything out with Les Snead and the Rams.

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Sean McVay encouraged by offensive line but still ‘a long, long way to go’

Sean McVay discusses how he is excited about the growth he’s seen from the offensive line of the Rams so far in training camp.

Upon the addition of Matthew Stafford this offseason, the Los Angeles Rams are among the favorites to emerge from the NFC in 2021. One of the only things that could prevent the Rams from having success on offense is the play of the new-look offensive line. During his discussion about the team’s new offensive line coach, Kevin Carberry, Sean McVay shared how inspirited he’s been with the progress of the offensive line thus far.

He did add that it’s still early and there’s “a long, long way to go,” but he likes what he’s seen from the group.

“It’s still a little bit early. I am encouraged with what I’ve seen from the first two days in pads. It was also great to get Kevin Carberry out here, get a new offensive line coach this year,” McVay said. “I think he’s going to do a great job, but he’s been forced to kind of just run meetings on Zoom. Today was the first practice that he was able to take part in, but I think guys are doing a great job communicating. I like what I’m seeing. There’s a long, long way to go. There are so many things that go on up front with all five getting on the same page with the communication – the targets and the run game. But, I think we’re taking steps in the right direction. I’ve been really encouraged by a handful of guys.”

Following a so-so year from the offensive line in 2019, the unit was much better in 2020. Jared Goff had plenty of clean pockets to throw from, but it wasn’t enough for him to have a productive season under center, to no fault of the guys up front.

Andrew Whitworth continues to be the savvy blindside protector for Los Angeles, and Rob Havenstein remains at the right tackle spot. Where the Rams are going to look a bit different this season is on the interior. Despite losing Austin Blythe in free agency, McVay has raved about the growth of Austin Corbett, who is making the move from right guard to center as he’ll get the first crack at replacing Blythe.

As McVay iterated, it’s still early, and things could be subject to change as the preseason progresses. Outside of Whitworth and Havenstein, unproven players are being relied upon to keep Stafford upright. While the Rams continue to work out their kinks on the offensive line, McVay hopes that they can continue to show signs of improvement in the trenches ahead of their Week 1 bout with the Chicago Bears.

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Rob Havenstein’s contract ranked among the 32 best in the NFL

PFF sees Rob Havenstein’s current contract as a great value.

As bad as the contracts for Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Brandin Cooks look in hindsight, the Los Angeles Rams have also handed out some great deals to key players. Aaron Donald’s contract has worked out marvelously, and Jalen Ramsey’s deal was worth every penny so far after he earned a first-team All-Pro nod last season.

But an underrated deal that the Rams did was the one for Rob Havenstein in 2018. It was a four-year pact worth $32.5 million, including just $9 million guaranteed. Pro Football Focus ranked the 32 best contracts in football and at No. 24 was Havenstein.

PFF points out that Havenstein has been a top-10 right tackle in terms of WAR (wins above replacement) since signing the deal in 2018, a show of his value to Los Angeles.

The Rams smartly inked Havenstein — their second-round selection in 2015 — to an early extension following his third season, and his $8.125 million per year average was the highest among all right tackle signings that offseason. The following offseason in 2019, five right tackles signed for $10 million or more per year, including Trent Brown and Lane Johnson signing for more than double Havenstein’s figure in terms of per-year average.

Havenstein was not himself in 2019 while dealing with injuries, which was really his only poor season since Sean McVay arrived in 2017. He bounced back nicely last year with a strong performance at right tackle, allowing just four sacks and committing five penalties, with an overall grade of 80.2 at Pro Football Focus.

He has cap hits of $8.3 and $8.8 million in the next two years, which puts him sixth among all right tackles for 2021. His average salary ranks seventh in the NFL, too, making his contract a strong value.

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Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein both crack PFF’s top 32 OTs in the NFL

The Rams are in a good spot at offensive tackle with Andrew Whitworth and Rob Havenstein.

Though there have been plenty of questions about the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive line this offseason, the tackle position hasn’t been an area of concern. Andrew Whitworth made it clear quickly after the season ended that he intended to play in 2021, and the Rams said publicly that they wanted to have him back.

The starter on the other side, Rob Havenstein, bounced back nicely last season with a strong performance at right tackle, thus solidifying his place as the starter again this year. When healthy, Havenstein is one of the better right tackles in football.

Heading into 2021, offensive tackle is a strength for the Rams, and it’s why Pro Football Focus is high on the Rams’ bookend blockers. PFF’s Anthony Treash ranked the top 32 offensive tackles in the NFL and both Whitworth and Havenstein made the cut.

Whitworth was ranked 15th, while Havenstein came in at No. 27. Treash wrote that Whitworth “was one of the five highest-graded tackles in the NFL through the first 10 weeks of the season” and didn’t allow a single sack in his first nine games before going down with a knee injury.

Whitworth is now 39 years old but has shown no signs of slowing down, which is remarkable. He’s playing as well as he was when he first joined the Rams in 2017, proving to be a highly valuable player for Los Angeles.

Havenstein hasn’t been as consistent, at least not in the last three years. He was great in 2018 but struggled in 2019 while battling injury, though it was encouraging to see him play at a high level last season.

Here’s what Treash wrote about Havenstein.

Havenstein is an interesting case study. He broke out in 2018, his fourth NFL season, as the league’s highest-graded right tackle, completely fell apart in a 2019 season the ended up being cut short due to injury (fourth-to-last among RTs in PFF grade) and then bounced back to his old form in 2020 (seventh among RTs in PFF grade). His lowest-graded game of 2020 would have been his third-highest-graded performance of 2019. The moral of the story is: Havenstein could be 10 spots higher or lower on this by the end of 2021.

Havenstein is signed through 2022, so if he plays well this season, he should be back for the final year of his contract. With cap hits of only $8.83 million in the next two years, Havenstein is a great value if he keeps playing the way he did in 2018 and 2020 instead of the 2019 version we saw of him.

Hopefully the Rams can get 17 games out of both of their tackles this season because their steady play will go a long way toward the entire offense playing at a high level.

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PFF includes four Wisconsin products in their top 101 players from the 2020 NFL season

Wisconsin football products Russell Wilson, T.J. Watt, J.J. Watt and Rob Havenstein were some of the NFL’s best at their position in 2020

The 2020 NFL season is officially in the books with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the end of the season now comes final ranking lists, ones which we are sure to see plenty of former Wisconsin Badgers occupy.

Related: Russell Wilson is right, Hall of Fame quarterbacks deserve to be heard by their front offices

The first list of note comes from ProFootballFocus; their top 101 players from the 2020 NFL season.

Four Wisconsin products made the cut, three of which I’m sure you can already guess.

  • No. 9: EDGE T.J. Watt
  • No. 14: QB Russell Wilson
  • No. 49: EDGE J.J. Watt
  • No. 86: OT Rob Havenstein

Wilson and the Watt brothers have become regulars in these rankings, though the inclusion of Havenstein is a significant one after he had a poor 2019 campaign.

Stay tuned for further round-up of ranking results as other outlets complete their end-of-season evaluations.

Contact/Follow us @TheBadgersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Wisconsin news, notes, opinion and analysis.

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Rams injury report: Havenstein (shoulder) limited, Lewis on track to return

Sean McVay said there’s a good chance Terrell Lewis will play this week

The Los Angeles Rams held a walk-through on Wednesday afternoon to open Week 16, taking things a little bit easier as the regular season winds down. As a result, players listed on the injury report are merely estimations had the Rams held a regular practice.

Rob Havenstein popped up to start the week, being limited by a shoulder injury. Sean McVay said he expects Havenstein to play against the Seahawks on Sunday, however, so it seems like a minor issue. McVay also noted that Aaron Donald would’ve gotten his usual rest day if the Rams held a full practice.

As for Terrell Lewis, there’s some good news on that front. McVay said “there’s a good chance” Lewis will be back this week against Seattle after missing the last four games. Lewis had swelling in his knee, which needed to be drained prior to Week 12.

Cam Akers has already been ruled out for this weekend due to a high ankle sprain, which could possibly keep him out longer than just one game. Darrell Henderson and Malcolm Brown will get more work in his place Sunday.

Watch: Rob Havenstein was mic’d up vs. Seahawks, but he didn’t tell anyone

Rob Havenstein is quietly a very funny member of the Rams.

Rob Havenstein doesn’t get much attention as a key player for the Rams, just based on the position he plays. But he’s proved once again this season that when he’s playing at a high level, typically, so too is the entire offense.

He was mic’d up on Sunday afternoon against the Seahawks and not only did he have a great performance, but he showed himself to quietly be one of the funnier guys on the team. He started off by kicking over a pylon during warm-ups for no good reason, and then saying, “That was a camera, wasn’t it? Whoops.”

At the end of the video, Havenstein revealed that he didn’t tell anyone he was mic’d up, likely in an attempt to get some good content from his unsuspecting teammates.

WATCH: Former Wisconsin T David Edwards makes debut on HBO Hard Knocks

This season, HBO’s Hard Knocks is following the training camp of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. Former Wisconsin tackle a…

This season, HBO’s Hard Knocks is following the training camp of the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers. Former Wisconsin tackle and current Rams’ backup guard David Edwards has made a hilarious first appearance on the show.

The clip that made it’s way to Badgers’ and Rams’ social media shows Edwards struggling to get the last few sips out of his drink. It may be something a little bit silly, but some lighthearted Wisconsin Football content is nice to see right now.

Look out for former Badgers offensive linemen Rob Havenstein of the Rams and Ryan Groy of the Chargers, as they may also make an appearance this year on Hard Knocks. It is nice to see some former Badgers get nationwide recognition from Hard Knocks, like with Alec Ingold and the Las Vegas Raiders in last year’s series.

5 Rams stories from the last week for Cardinals fans to know

A look around the NFC West to see what is going on with the Arizona Cardinals’ division rivals.

The end of the week has come in the offseason and it is time to go around the NFC West to see what has been going on with the Arizona Cardinals’ division rivals.

What is new with the Los Angeles Rams? Here are some stories for Cardinals fans to know about from the last week.

Jalen Ramsey won’t hold out if no extension before camp

Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports

The Rams have not agreed to a new deal with Ramsey, whom they acquired via trade last year. However, Ramsey isn’t going to hold out. He believes it will get taken care of.

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Sean McVay addresses RT situation, is confident Havenstein will bounce back

The Rams will most likely let the RT situation play out in camp.

There are a lot of positions on the Rams’ depth chart that still don’t have starters set at the top. The offensive line has four such positions with only left tackle settled at this point in the offseason.

Based on salary, right tackle should have its starter already written in ink, but not even Rob Havenstein’s $8.1 million can assure him the starting job in 2020. Bobby Evans took over at right tackle late last season after Havenstein was injured and played relatively well as a rookie.

That’s created somewhat of a tricky situation heading into next season because Havenstein is paid like a top tackle, but he didn’t play like one last year.

With no OTAs or minicamp taking place right now, this competition will likely be settled once training camp begins. The lack of on-field work has complicated things for the Rams and their coaches, but at the very least, they can feel good about having two starting-caliber players at right tackle.

Sean McVay addressed the position on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, saying he’s confident Havenstein will rebound from an injury-plagued 2019 season. He also mentioned that Evans could play guard, which adds to the intrigue along the offensive line.

“What you feel good about at right tackle is Rob Havenstein is such a tough player. He was pushing through some injuries that I do think led to not seeing him play consistently at the level we’re accustomed to. I’m fully confident that he’ll get back to that. He’s feeling good,” McVay said. “I thought Bobby Evans being able to step in and play well toward the latter half of the season was really good for his confidence, but I’m not convinced that guy couldn’t play guard, either. So I think we’ve got some guys that are versatile – we know we have players that can play – but it’s about finding ways to get the best five on there and certain guys might have a little bit more position flex and I think until we get out and are really playing football again, that’s the challenging part of what these times entail.”

Havenstein was rewarded with a contract extension before the 2018 season, and he made the Rams look smart for giving him a new deal. He played at a level deserving of a Pro Bowl nod two seasons ago, allowing just two sacks, committing only two penalties and earning an overall grade of 86.4 from PFF.

Last year, it was a different story. He gave up five sacks and committed eight penalties in about half the snaps played in 2018. His PFF grade dropped off precipitously, falling to 50.9.

As McVay mentioned, Havenstein battled through injuries, which impacted his performance. He missed the end of the year with a knee injury, and even after he returned to practice in full, the Rams held him out as a precaution.

Evans was playing well enough to allow Havenstein to rest and recover, but he also got a lot of help from his tight ends with double-teams and chips at the line. Havenstein was left on an island, so to speak, much more often when he was healthy.

This is an important position for the Rams to figure out, especially with how often teams put their best pass rushers on the strong side against right tackles. If Havenstein can’t rebound in 2020 and Evans beats him out by a wide margin, he could be on the trade block in an attempt to recoup a draft pick and free up $4.66 million, according to Over the Cap.

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