This off-season the Rams replaced their previous DL coach, Johnson, with a new young guy, Henderson. Henderson is getting rave reviews.
Here is Farr on Henderson (from a recent podcast: http://theramshuddle.com/topic/podcast-farr-simmons-share-first-impressions-of-otas/ … my transcript):
Farr and Simmons have high praise for new DL coach Henderson, and in fact (according to them), so do the players.
More on that. In that podcast, Farr goes on about all the drills Henderson is using in OTAs, and directly says that going through those drills, you cannot help but improve as a D-lineman. As a former D-lineman he had a lot of admiration for what he was seeing in OTAs.
In a separate discussion Donald talks about all the drills he is going through with Henderson and how they are helping him elevate his game. More on that below.
To align with that, here are some Saints fans on when the Saints replaced Johnson in 2016. The discussion is recent and comes from Saints fans noticing that the Rams just replaced Johnson too:
chameleonknight
Didn’t some of our players make comments to the effect that our new d line coach taught them far more than Johnson’s ever did?
fdl16
There was an Advocate article last year about how our guys never practiced pass rushing in practice under Johnson. The guys basically had to teach one another how to rush the passer at the NFL level.
Here is a New Orleans paper on the new hire (in 2017) of a DL coach to replace Johnson. What they say about that guy (Nielson) echoes what the Rams DL (and Farr) say about Henderson:
Nielsen has become well known for his “hands-on approach” to coaching and teaching players; which Erickson notes is the act of him personally and physically demonstrating technique, even if that means putting his hand in a 3-point stance and getting “down in the dirt” to show a player how to come off the ball and execute a move.
That “hands on approach” to teaching players was something that observers say wasn’t really embraced all that much previously by the former ‘old school’ D-Line coach Bill Johnson.
Johnson I guess is not a teacher, and Henderson is. The Rams coaches in general are known as teachers and it looks like Henderson fits in and Johnson didn’t.
This could mean the Rams DL (and maybe edge rushers too) are improved in 2019, including Donald. Donald is openly enthusiastic about Henderson. Here’s Donald on that:
…Donald has enjoyed the tutelage he’s received from new defensive line coach Eric Henderson — better known around the facility as “coach Henny.” And that’s because, just as Donald often says, Henderson feels like there’s a lot Donald can improve upon as a player.
“I’ve been loving coach ‘Henny,’ that’s one of the main parts why I want to be here — to work with the guys, and also work with him,” Donald said. “He’s working a lot of different drills that I feel like can help me get better, improve my game. He’s pushing me. Like I said, he broke down [film] on me, showed me things that I need to correct in my game.”
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