Rams guard Tremayne Anchrum was joking, but his facial expressions and deep breaths described the type of stress he and many other unproven players across the league are dealing with during the preseason.

“You can’t think about … making the team,” Anchrum said last week after the Rams’ preseason loss against the Houston Texans. “That stuff used to weigh me down back in the day, the last two years. But now I’ve cleared my head.”

Anchrum is playing freely in his third season and it helps that Rams coach Sean McVay has mentioned him during multiple news conferences as a player who has impressed this summer. But Anchrum, the team’s 2020 seventh-round draft pick, has quickly gone from roster bubble player to someone in need after the season-ending injury to rookie guard Logan Bruss, who tore the ACL and MCL in his right knee against the Texans.

McVay listed Anchrum, AJ Jackson and Bobby Evans as backup players expected to provide depth to the offensive line and all three are capable of playing guard or tackle. Anchrum started at right tackle for two seasons at Clemson, where he won a national championship in 2018, before moving to offensive guard in the NFL. Jackson is in line to be the swing tackle, but he’s seen snaps at guard during the preseason, and Evans has starting experience on the inside and outside.

The versatility of the trio could lead to the Rams only keeping eight offensive linemen when finalizing their 53-man roster after Saturday’s preseason finale against the Cincinnati Bengals. That would create an extra roster spot at other crowded positions, but most teams tend to keep nine offensive linemen and that might be wise after the injury to Bruss. Left tackle Joe Noteboom, left guard David Edwards, center Brian Allen, right guard Coleman Shelton and right tackle Rob Havenstein form the starting unit.

McVay expressed confidence in Anchrum, Jackson and Evans to be ready in case more injuries occur, but he mentioned that he wasn’t pleased with the backup offensive line’s performance against the Texans last week. Backup quarterback John Wolford was sacked five times in the first half with Anchrum, Jackson and Evans blocking for him.

Anchrum declined the excuse of the backup offensive line playing against most of the Texans’ starting defense.

“It doesn’t matter who the hell is out there,” Anchrum said. “We gotta do better. We have to figure out those fundamentals. No matter what technique they play or different looks we see, we still have to apply our fundamentals and compete. We lost a lot of those battles (last week).

“We’re not proud of that. We take pride in keeping our guys up. … It wasn’t a great showing. We picked it up toward the end, but there’s a lot that we left out there that we should have fixed.”

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Anchrum can breathe a sigh of relief. His job is likely secured, but the Rams’ reserve offensive linemen need a bounce-back performance against the Bengals on Saturday.

RAMS HIRE GRUDEN

McVay announced Thursday that former Washington head coach Jay Gruden was hired as a team consultant.

“Yeah, so you guys know how close Jay’s been to me,” McVay said. “He’s been such an instrumental part really of my coaching career, huge mentor. So he’s going to help us out in a consulting role. It’s always good to have him out here. He’ll do that remotely, but he’s a guy that I heavily rely on and have always, whether he’s rocking the Rams blue or not.”

McVay served as Gruden’s offensive coordinator in Washington from 2014 to 2016 before being hired as the Rams’ head coach in 2017.