Rob Havenstein, the veteran offensive lineman for the Rams, has announced his retirement after an 11-year NFL career.
Selected in the second round of the 2015 NFL Draft when the franchise was still in St. Louis during the Jeff Fisher era, Havenstein became a fixture under coach Sean McVay and a key part of the team’s success over the last decade.
He played a role in the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory in 2021, a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. An ankle injury limited him to just seven games in 2025, and his retirement news arrived days after quarterback Matthew Stafford said he will return for one more season in 2026.
Los Angeles will now need to find a new starter on the offensive line ahead of the new league year in March. With the scouting combine, free agency and the NFL Draft coming up, the front office will have important decisions to make; replacing a dependable right tackle like Havenstein won’t be easy.
Havenstein’s durability was a hallmark of his career: in 10 of his 11 seasons he played at least 97% of the team’s offensive snaps. He played every snap in 2016 (all 1,100 offensive plays that year) and repeated the feat in 2022, logging all 1,018 offensive snaps across a 17-game schedule.
That kind of steady availability and performance is rare, and it will be difficult for the Rams to replace.
Fan Take: This matters because offensive line continuity is crucial — losing a long-time, reliable tackle changes protection schemes and could affect both pass protection and the running game. For the league, it underscores how important depth and draft planning are, since even proven veterans can be lost to injury or retirement at any time.
