Rams' OL Joe Noteboom 'Could Start At Tackle Or Guard'

As Joe Noteboom enters Year 6, he's played both tackle and guard in his career, and head coach Sean McVay has the decision to make on where he wants to situate him in his return from an Achilles injury.

In some cases, a torn Achilles can be a proverbial death sentence for professional athletes. Los Angeles Rams offensive lineman Joe Noteboom has defied that logic.

Head coach Sean McVay said the most important thing is finding the right group of five offensive linemen and then situating them into a certain position to gel as one unit, and while Noteboom and Alaric Jackson are both listed as the starting left tackle, the sixth-year offensive lineman from TCU is competing for a starting gig at multiple positions on the line.

"[Noteboom] could start at tackle or guard for us, and he's done that for us in years past," McVay said. "We would like to be able to figure that out, but we also want to continue to make sure that we're doing a thorough job of the evaluation process."

Noteboom suffered a torn Achilles during the Rams' week 6 matchup against the Panthers in 2022 and was back in the starting lineup for their preseason opener against the Los Angeles Chargers Saturday, which went against McVay's rest-the-starters strategy. 

McVay said coming off the Achilles injury, he wants to maximize Noteboom's repetitions while testing out what position he'll best situate on the offensive line which is why he was one of the few starters that suited up.

McVay will utilize the intrasquad practices with the Raiders and Broncos over the next two weeks to give Noteboom the proper number of reps to get ready for the season.

"Joe's had an excellent camp," McVay said. "If we feel like Joe's gotten the amount of work that's necessary to start the season and be ready to go, he's going to be an important part of this team. If we feel like that's going to be best for Joe to get some of those snaps in that game setting, then we'll do that, but I think he's gotten a lot of really good work in practice and he's played a lot of snaps."

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You can follow Casey Smith on Twitter @casey_smith2419

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