{"id":139879,"date":"2025-08-12T14:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139879\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T14:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T14:32:10","slug":"rams-undersized-undrafted-rookie-center-willie-lampkin-raising-eyebrows-in-preseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/139879\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams’ undersized, undrafted rookie center Willie Lampkin raising eyebrows in preseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

Willie Lampkin was a starting guard for five years of college football, and at North Carolina last season he was a first-team All-American and won the Jacobs Blocking Trophy as the best offensive lineman in the ACC. With that kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9, you\u2019d think he would have been a top draft prospect.<\/p>\n

One problem: At North Carolina\u2019s Pro Day, Lampkin measured at just under 5-foot-11, and he weighed 279 pounds. NFL teams don\u2019t want offensive linemen who are that small. Lampkin went undrafted.<\/p>\n

But Lampkin signed as an undrafted free agent with the Rams, has worked primarily at center, and in the Rams\u2019 preseason debut he put on a show: Undrafted rookie offensive linemen aren\u2019t often the subject of highlight videos, but the NFL\u2019s official Reddit account posted a video<\/a> showing Lampkin making four pancake blocks in the Rams\u2019 preseason opener against the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s getting Lampkin noticed, and Rams head coach Sean McVay said after the preseason game that Lampkin stood out not just on social media, but to the Rams\u2019 coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he did a nice job,\u201d McVay said of Lampkin. \u201cObviously, he has great leverage, can get underneath people and be able to finish. That was what you loved about him at North Carolina, but just a competitor. He\u2019s tough, he\u2019s physical. He understands how to play to his strengths. I think he\u2019s done a really good job, I thought a lot of guys did a nice job, but I was pleased with Willie.\u201d<\/p>\n

The odds are stacked against any undrafted rookie, and especially one who\u2019s as undersized as Lampkin. But at some point, a player\u2019s performance on the field has to matter more than his height and weight. If Lampkin keeps playing this way in the preseason, he\u2019s going to force his way onto the roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Willie Lampkin was a starting guard for five years of college football, and at North Carolina last season…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":139880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-139879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-nfl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115016285714733843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}