Should the St. Louis Rams Make a Change at Center?

As the St. Louis Rams returned to practice Wednesday, they were without the veteran leader of their offensive line, Scott Wells. Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Wells was “banged up on a couple of front(s)”, but the 33-year-old center’s lack of participation in practice was attributed to a “non-injury related” reason on the official injury report.

It wouldn’t be surprising in the least if Wells did have an injury, considering his performance over the season’s opening two games. Wells was a very visible part of an interior that was disastrous in the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings, and while guards Rodger Saffold and Davin Joseph rebounded against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 2, Wells’ struggles continued, particularly when he botched a shotgun snap that destroyed a potential touchdown drive near the end of the first half, and again when Bucs defensive tackle ran right past him for an easy sack.

While they certainly do not have an error-free grading system, it’s highly notable that Wells is currently rated as the third-worst center in the NFL during 2014 by Pro Football Focus. Rams head coach Jeff Fisher is pretty loyal to his guys, but it might be time to start wondering how much longer Wells will be trusted with a starting role.

After all, backup center Tim Barnes had success as the starter in the last four games of 2014, following a season-ending injury to Wells. And considering that Wells missed a large chunk of training camp while recovering from an illness, Barnes has as much if not more experience this year with the starting line than Wells does.

It’s not the easiest thing to do to bench a guy who’s been an effective starting center going on ten years and replace him with a former undrafted free agent who has started just four NFL games. But if Wells can’t practice on a consistent basis while the 26-year-old Barnes does, and Barnes has shown that he can be effective when called upon, a change is something the Rams need to consider.

That’s even more true considering that quarterbacks Shaun Hill, Austin Davis, and Case Keenum are still engrossing themselves into the offense in varying degrees, and none of them has extended experience with preparing week-to-week as a starter. While it would be more acceptable for Wells to miss practice if the Rams had a long-entrenched starter like Sam Bradford leading the offense, that’s not a luxury that the team can really afford with such an unstable, merry-go-round-like QB situation.

It’s not necessarily fair to give up on a player with a history of success after two starts. But as we all know well, the NFL is not a league where fairness is considered very often, so it should be interesting to see how much longer Wells retains his role.