Rams claim Austin Blythe off of waivers from Colts

The Los Angeles Rams yesterday claimed center Austin Blythe off of waivers from the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts had waived Blythe on Monday as part of their roster moves to make room for signing five players who had participated in the team’s rookie mini-camp on a tryout basis. Blythe was probably the most interesting decision among the five players cut, as he was drafted by the Colts just last year.

Blythe was selected in the seventh round of last year’s draft by the Colts out of Iowa, and it seemed that offensive line coach Joe Philbin liked Blythe coming out of college. He played in eight games for the Colts last season and started one of them at right guard, and he figured to be competing for a depth spot with Indianapolis this year as a guy who could play both center and guard.

Once again it should be noted that with a new GM coming in there are always going to be a lot of changes and the new guy won’t really have the same ties to players brought in by the former GM. But it at least seemed like Blythe would be solid competition. Now this offseason the Colts have lost two backups who had versatility to play both guard and center (Jonotthan Harrison and Austin Blythe), which means that it could be Brian Schwenke who fills that role as the versatile backup in 2017, assuming he doesn’t win the starting right guard job.