training camp reports (starting w/ a pre-camp report)

📍 #RamsCamp@JaredGoff16 checkin’ in! pic.twitter.com/dPy4ktSQeP

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) July 24, 2019

bubbaramfan

Just got home from TC. Had a great time with the fellas. Wow! Was it packed with Ram Fans today. All the stand were full and standing room only around the field. I bet there were over 5,000, by far the biggest crowd at TC since they came from St Louis. Hot, mid 80’s.

I got there at a little after 3, and found a seat in the south stands at 45 yd line. QB’s were already out there taking snaps from Allen, Hrynkiewicz, Kolone and Chandler Brewer, throwing to coaches. Allen looks bigger, Hrnky is even bigger. I could see right away Bortles is a huge upgrade over Mannion. Goff, Bortles and Wolford all throw tight spirals, Brandon Allen looks a step behind. I liked what I saw from Wolford.

LB’s were first to come out in front of my section. (no way I could move around, too crowded). LB coach had them stripping away balls. They did this several ways, punching from underneath, over the top and just slamming the ball any way they could. Lots of “Ohhhss and Ahhs” from the crowd. Next they practiced covering screen passes. Coaches played as RB’s. Then some “tip ball” drills.

LB play that stood out: Mathews doesn’t look like he’s lost a step. He’s as quick as any other LB, Littleton is buffed, Kiser was practicing intense and quick. Hager is a hitter, liked what I saw there. I wasn’t impressed with Oko, he looks like he’s holding back a little. Ketner Kupp, Coops’s brother, is not going to make the team, noticeably slower.

Next group was the DL. They started with hitting the sleds after zigging around a dummy. Of course AD got the loudest “pop”. Brockers was right there, He looks bigger and is very quick. F-Meyers looked good. Gaines a bit slower, but showed power. But DL who impressed me most? Joseph-Day. He’s almost as big as Brockers and looks very quick. Next drill was speed rush around dummy, and lean into coach with ball. AD and J-D swatted ball out real quick. Boogie Roberts, who I liked going into TC, was a disappointment. He is slow, and could barely move the sled. It’s only the first day though.

Because we were in the south stands, we didn’t get to see 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. that was on the north field and the stands over there were packed. I could only see with binoculars and hard to make out player numbers. I did see Gurley out there. Don’t think he’s be out there if he was still hurt.

Of course I missed stuff because of shooting the breeze, but all in all it was a good practice, players were into it.

Players that stood out to me:

Blake Bortles. Not hard for the average fan to see this guy is a much better QB than Sean Mannion. I can’t wait to see him in pre-season, not only to see how good he really is, but him being better than Mannion, we can see how good the new WR’s in camp are.

Sebastian Joseph-Day. Almost a mirror image of Brockers. this guy is cut and quick. Only day one of practice, but he stood out today.

Mathews looked good.

About all I can give right now. I was disappointed I didn’t get to see the 7 on 7 and 11 on 11. I’ll be there tomorrow and expect a big crowd again. I’ll make it a point to get to the OL and DB’s.

Of course I’ve left stuff out, but when I remember I’ll post here.

Day 2, 7/28….SOME FOLLOW-UP:

bubbaramfan

Demby did take snaps at G with the ones, but mostly played with the 2’s and I think that where he belongs.
avis is looking good. Kelly, meh. Webster and Jo-Day have impressed me so far. Wolford at QB is a player. Brandon Allen hasn’t impressed.

I just read Cameron De Silva’s article on TC and I have to dis agree with one of his takes. He thinks Henderson is clearly the #2 RB. After todays practice its clear to me Malcom Brown is. He had a very good day today, better than Henderson. Brown is way better at pass blocking and finds holes through the middle. He had a very good day today.

52, Matthews, was out there with the 1 defense and doesn’t look like he’s lost a step. Rams fans are going to be pleased to have Mr. Mathews in horns.

Day 3, 7/29

from 8to12

On offense, Reynolds made a nice TD grab after beating Rapp and the other safety on. Dbl move. Later , he snagged a high throw over the middle in tight coverage. As he came out of his break, his knees were bent and lower to the ground and immediately stretched up to catch the ball; very athletic play.

Also , Thomas has been running good routes and making catches today and previously on Saturday. If was asked to rank the Wr’s after a couple days of practice I would him at 4 – 5, probably behind Reynolds.

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bubbaramfan

Malcolm Brown is having an outstanding camp and will remain the #2 RB. Mostly due his ability to pass block. He was targeted a lot coming out of the backfield yesterday and never dropped a pass, even catching a one handed TD over Peters.

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VeteranRamFan

here’s my link to todays photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UzNXV5QCF1rRKj5v5

Really not much different to report from the previous two days but let me say this, practice is very spirited! No fights today but some guys did end up on the ground from some subtle tackling.

A couple of stand out players today were Josh Reynolds and Mike Thomas. Both making some leaping catches, using their size to their advantage. Josh looked a little smoother and surer of himself than Thomas but it was nice to see Mike making some plays.

There were a lot of second and third strings guys being rotated in and out. None really stood out, good or bad. The offense started off with a bunch of runs and without pads on, it’s not really fair to judge how some did.

Some situational football was incorporated. Two minute drill with the sound system cranked up and it was loud! First team moved the ball well but it was against the 2nd team defense.

I’m hoping tomorrow brings out the pads. These guys want to hit!

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Day 4, 7/30

theduke

Josh Reynolds has some great plays today Goff found him over the middle on a dig route through a trio of defenders in the area, including Taylor Rapp, who recognized the play just a bit too late. However, I was impressed by his closing speed.

Cooper Kupp had a great deep reception from Goff on a play where they were lined up in a 1 x 3 formation. Kupp was the inside slot receiver on the right, and it looked like man coverage with a Cover-1 shell. Talib and Peters were in man coverage against Woods and Cooks to the outside. The defender (Marqui Christian or Robey-Coleman) on Kupp opened his hips at the snap and Kupp streaked down the seam for a wide open catch. Goff saw it all the way and hit him in stride, never even considering going elsewhere.

An interesting thing to note—I’ve seen our D play a lot of cover-3 with Robey-Coleman playing the deep safety and Weddle/Johnson/Rapp coming down into the box as a hybrid linebacker/safety type, usually over the tight end. Our offense has responded by throwing the mid-distance out routes and digs that the cover-3 are susceptible to.

Weddle and John Johnson have a very good rapport already, as they were trying to disguise coverages. Most of the time, they make it look like a cover-2 shell, but they’ll break off into a cover-1 or cover-3 at the break with Johnson typically going down into the box. Very exciting to see them test Goff, but even more exciting to consider what they’ll do to opposing offenses during the season. Weddle is going to freak up a lot of plays for opposing offenses.

Everett often lining up wide, and being guarded by Peters or Talib, rather than a safety.

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So Ram

I left early but have a few takes from camp today.

Everett looks leaner,stronger,faster. I think I saw Reynold make a real nice play. Copper Kupp made a play on an out. Cooks looks really quick. Wants to get physical in the middle. Nice to see. I think he might have bulked up.

My take from today is how freaking much Morgan Fox is going to mean to The Rams upfront. He is going to get a lot of reps. I thought he got some first team reps today ??

Troy Hill is looking sharp. He is such a solid special teams guy. I like him. Once again for fans saying trade & cut him. There is a reason he got a 2 year extension.

Hatfield made a nice play. He was wondering if it was a penalty, because I think he knocked someone on there butt.

Weddle made a nice play. I got him going by calling his name. Donald ran up & picked him up. Donald was having fun. In good spirits. He slapped Clay 5 after a QB sack. Going to be fun watching the Vets. Called Weddle an old man. He dresses in all long sleeves & pants.unlike Peters.

Speaking of Talib is just a solid CB.

I’m a big fan of Richards. Not sure he makes it, but he always shows up. Marquis Christian
got some solid reps today. Both blondes?? Lol.

John Johnson is real good.

Malcom Brown is a flat out stud. He is all-around good.Speical teams,catching,out of backfield,blocking.

Justin Davies made a play. Aaron Donald after the play tried to dislodge it a few times. He was having fun with it.Ball security is a Ram things

Ram fans around are excited about Henderson. They say he is going to be fun to watch . Smooth.

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Elvis

Really nice day at camp, weather was great. It was youth day, big turnout, lots of kids.

I gotta say, seeing Donald in pads in the blue and white uniform, is quite a sight to see.

I was just coming to the conlusion that there’s really not much difference between in pads and not these days but though the difference may not be huge, it is significant. No tackling but felt like real football.

The offense won most of the time. Goff looks great, seems like he has more zip on the ball. Henderson continues to get a lot of reps. Thomas doing stuff with the 2’s so maybe he has a shot. Higbee seems to have taken his game up a notch.

I’m looking for big things from Fowler. He’s on the field early getting individual coaching and just looks really strong a focused out there.

The 3rd and 4th QB get no reps in team drills except after practice is over. I read this is to get them ready for preseason games in case anyone is wondering how we’re approaching preseason this year.

Day 4, 7/30

headslapper

I got hooked up with my job and spent the day in a VIP tent.

View ended up being both great and bad depending on the time of practice.

It was the first day in pads and there were some fun drills for sure. Special Teams was the most fun to watch for some good hitting.

TG3 was on the field but not suited up. Whit played the whole time. I had the OL near me for a while and paid special attention to Allen. I would say he looked almost as tall as Blythe, the two of them have a very similar build actually. Where Allen seemed to stand out was during a drill using the slides. He seemed to have the most punch out of all the linemen (Noteboom’s punched seemed pretty weak actually). I also watched him on 11 on 11 and he seemed to work really well with Goff, unlike others with Bortles etc who seemed to have some shaky exchanges. All in all, Allen is not my biggest worry, Noteboom looks good, but wondering about the lack of punch.

I noticed that Higbee was a man among boys when the TEs were working out, he just looks huge and great. He also seemed to be playing in front of Everett and had a nice TD catch from Goff in 11 on 11. I wonder if Higbee is holding off Everett and knows his spot as top dog is being challenged, either way he is stepping up and looks great.

There will be no QB controversy from what I saw today. Goff seems in a different league than Bortles and Bortles seemed in a different league than the other two camp arms.

JoJo seemed to get a lot of work as a starting WR and made a few plays. He also stayed after working on punt catches from the jug machine. He seemed to get a lot of play today and seemed to make the most of it.

The Goff connection to Cooks looked natural and great, but there was one pass to Cooks that was low and difficult but that I believe he should have had, His hands still seem to lack strength for those hard catches. When it is placed in stride it looks amazing and that happened more than once. Timing seems better than ever. Later on Goff to Woods seemed to take over and timing looked great there too.

Both Brown and Henderson looked spry and had some good runs. Henderson had a great catch going up for it and think he has a lot of catching ability.

Weather was great and it was really fun watching Brokers and Whit playing with their kids on the field after practice.

All in all, things moved pretty quick and it seemed like an efficient practice. Seems to me that the offense is ahead of the defense right now (which makes sense).

That is mostly what I remember, I am sure others will have more. My first camp report is done

Some follow-up & other bits re: Day 4

Safety Blitz

I attended two practices and am again going today. Who impressed me most?

Henderson..amazing acceleration and great hands. This guy will pick up the slack.

Weddle always talking to teammates…great communicator.

Gurley not limping at all and Kupp looks ready to rock.

MCVAY IS A RELATIONSHIP GENIUS.

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theduke

Gaines may be short, but he is wide. I think he and Sebastian-Day will spell for each other on run/pass plays. Gaines is a big boy, and he will be a roadblock in the middle. We don’t need him to get push up the middle (though he certainly does that!!); we need him to just clog the middle.

Rapp looks good, but I’m a bit concerned that he’s often just standing around instead of communicating with the ones in the secondary—Talib, Peters, Weddle, and Johnson. With his helmet off, he really looks like a lost little high school kid, but I think he’s going to factor in pretty well.

David Long is a true technician. His athleticism doesn’t really jump out at you, but he had really good technique. He got beat on a crisp five-yard slant by Michael Thomas, but I think that’s because he was on an island and his responsibility was not to get beat deep. He came in and made the tackle right after the catch was made. On another play, he was isolated wide on Robert Woods, and he was able to knock the ball away. He did a really good job of using the sideline to squeeze Woods before reaching out to bat the ball away. I am VERY excited about David Long.

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So Ram

I think Noteboom & Brian Allen are doing an excellent job upfront. The depth at guard is my biggest concern. I’m still not solid on Austin Blythe. He is a good technician though. He Maneuvers defense of lineman around well. He gets over powered easy.
Kolone actually looks okay. He is a strong guy.Evans & Edwards are moving around a lot.Looking forward to the preseason.

Bill Johnson is gone , so the D’line Is going to bring in a different mind set. Wade adapts well
to different types off fronts.

I saw Marquis Christian in a lot.

The rookie Taylor Rapp did not show much except a little on special teams. Did not pick up on Nick Scott. There were a couple sleepers out there.

The Rams Depth is pretty good.

Some follow-up & other bits re: Day 4

So Ram

Kiser can cover sideline to sideline. He would have destroyed the RB before he could get out of bounds. When plays with pads he seems smaller & faster. I would not take anything away from his performance.

Fowler is being over looked. Should be his best pro season coming up.

Does Barron not being on team change anything as far as personnel grouping ? Clay Mathews is moving all the time from left de to right de to all lower postions. The defensive rotation is changing as well. Wade has been a more of a 3-4 guy with a lot of 4-3 concepts. Morgan Fox seems to almost like a 4-3 DT the way he postions himself inside at points

The last day

49RH8R

First of all, this was night and day from when I visited the first year the Rams were back. Like, not even close. There were tents for games, merchandise, alumni autographs, and a tent where you could wear virtual reality goggles and see what the new stadium will look like from the inside. And that was even before you went to watch the practice. The first year I went there was like one hot dog stand and now there was a whole food court area in the lower parking lot. Next to that was the kids area with about 6-8 huge inflatable bounce houses and stuff. Frankly I was a little bummed it has gotten so big. I talked to a lot of people and this was their first year visiting.

I was in line for parking and the cars were at a dead stop when Eric Weddle pulled up next to me and went in the side gate. He’s got a pretty badass white F-150 with black detailing. He could be driving anything, and he drives a Ford truck which I thought was cool.

Dennis Smith and LeRoy Irvin were in the alumni tent signing autographs and taking pictures.

This was the last practice at Irvine, so it was just a walkthrough, no contact at all. Whitworth, Gurley, and Kupp were all out there.

*Kupp was getting more reps and special attention from Goff it seemed. McVay had Goff pointing out reads and his checkdowns instead of throwing the ball but sometimes Goff would finish by just offloading it to Kupp. It was like they were trying to knock the rust off even if it meant just tossing him the ball.

*Higbee came out first as the #1 TE but I’m not sure what that means. Everett got a lot of reps but it seemed Higs got more.

*There were some pretty sweet screen plays to Gurley and Kupp that I didn’t recognize from any game last year. It was almost a long, frozen rope lateral behind the line of scrimmage.

*There was some talk of Demby making noise but there is no doubt Allen and Noteboom are the starters. Allen looks kind of short but rock solid.

*Clay Matthews was mostly lined up as rusher outside the RT. I did not see him much at ILB at all.

*Weddle showed blitz a few times.

*It was interesting watching the defense because they had so many substitutions. Most of the DB’s like Troy Hill, Hatfield, Marqui Christian were out with the 1’s. Interestingly, rookie David Long was not with the 1’s but on the other side of the field with the backups.

*SJD is a big boy and seems like he has the inside track to start at NT. Gaines was not out there much but was on the other side of the field with the backups like Long.

*Rapp got a lot of reps with the 1’s and even played FS with Weddle moving to SS. There were some packages where JJ, Weddle, and Rapp were all on the field at the same time.

*Troy Hill looks like the 3rd CB and was in for Peters a lot. I think Peters might be a little banged up but he did play.

*Morgan fox surprisingly played a lot with the starters.

*Gurley and J.J. were hamming it up big time on one play. In fact, JJ hit the ground rolling and laughing because Gurley must have said something pretty funny. It was a very lose walkthrough all throughout.

*Malcom Brown clearly #2 and I didn’t see much of Henderson

*These guys were definitely having fun out there and I think they know they are good.

*During red zone drills, Gurley ran a fly pattern as a WR from the 20 for a TD.

*Some loud fan started the “Who’s House? RAMS HOUSE!” chant and got some of the players fired up.

*I’ve been back and forth on Serena Morales being hot or not but after seeing her in person I’ll go with hot.

*Hekker was leaving the field after signing autographs but people started chanting “Johnny Johnny” and he came back out for more.

*Johnny Mundt was signing autographs near me and I gave him a shout out being as he’s from my hometown. We talked for a second because my buddy coached his brother who is a stud baseball player.