journalists on camp, 8/2 …

Rams cornerback E.J. Gaines leaves practice with injury

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/19940/rams-cornerback-e-j-gaines-leaves-practice-with-injury

EARTH CITY, Mo. — One day after answering questions about the competition at cornerback between E.J. Gaines and Trumaine Johnson, St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher responded to queries of a more worrisome nature.

Gaines departed Sunday evening’s practice with an apparent leg injury, limping off the field early in the workout and not returning. After practice, Fisher offered as much of an update as he could without having a lot of information available.

“We don’t know (yet),” Fisher said. “We’re going to have to do some tests. He got stepped on, which is encouraging as opposed to the other things. So we’ll do some tests. Right now, they are not too concerned. He’s very sore but that typically can happen when you get stepped on.”

Gaines appeared to be in quite a bit of pain as he limped off the field, at one point pulling his jersey over his head to hide his anguish. But there’s no reason to jump to conclusions at this point, as the Rams will do the tests and more will be known by Tuesday at the latest.

In the meantime, Johnson got plenty of opportunities with the first team in what is a hard-to-miss role reversal from last year. It was a knee injury to Johnson that opened the door for Gaines to claim a job that he would not relinquish. Time will tell whether Johnson will get the chance or, if given the chance, be able to do the same.

Marcus Roberson also got some chances Sunday night and made the most of them. In 7-on-7 and team drills, Roberson came up with at three interceptions. He’s a young player to keep an eye on as this camp and the preseason progresses.

The Rams will put the pads on for the first time Monday for a special teams workout, with the first fully-padded team practice set for Tuesday afternoon. That’s probably a good thing, as Sunday’s practice was extremely spirited. It included the first skirmish of camp, mostly involving the pass catchers and the secondary. It was hard to tell where the fight started but safety Rodney McLeod, safety T.J. McDonald, Johnson, tight end Jared Cook, receiver Kenny Britt and guard Jamon Brown all had some level of prominence in the mix. At one point, Brown tossed McDonald to the ground.

After it was over, the trash talking continued, as Cook and Johnson spent some time chirping at each other. Johnson reminded Cook that “pads come on in two days” and Cook responded in kind with “You say that every year. Get some new material.” Britt and Stedman Bailey followed with some (mostly) good-natured taunts for McDonald.

The list of those sitting out Sunday’s practice remained the same. End Chris Long (back), guard Cody Wichmann (calf), cornerback Brandon McGee and safety Mark Barron (knee) did not participate. Running back Todd Gurley (knee) remains limited to individual drills.

As expected, Demetrius Rhaney took his turn with the first-team offense at center. The Rams continue to rotate Rhaney, Tim Barnes and Barrett Jones. Fisher said after practice he doesn’t have an exact date he wants to make a decision, so it appears the contest will roll on for a while.

Roberson wasn’t the only corner to come up with an interception Sunday. Lamarcus Joyner bounced back after a couple of rough moments to jump an out route from Nick Foles intended for receiver Brian Quick and snare a pick. Joyner ran it back for a would-be touchdown had the play been live.

Although there were some interceptions, a few of the quarterbacks had some success, particularly in red zone drills. Case Keenum fired a nice strike down the seam to receiver Bradley Marquez and lated darted one in between defenders to tight end Alex Bayer for a touchdown. Foles and Sean Mannion had a couple of touchdown tosses as well, including a great throw from Foles to Bailey on a comeback route for a score.

The Rams will have a special teams practice Monday at 11 a.m. ET, a session which is closed to the public.

Practice Report 8/2: Strong Offseasons Paying Off

Myles Simmons

http://www.stlouisrams.com/news-and-events/article-practicereport/Practice-Report-82-Strong-Offseasons-Paying-Off/92331abb-c7df-4fdc-acd5-d71b6dd4ff21

While the Rams’ defensive strength is well-known, perhaps one of its more underrated components is the secondary.

But with a bevy of young and growing players, many of St. Louis’ defensive backs could have breakout years in 2015. So far in camp, head coach Jeff Fisher has noticed that some hard work in the offseason by many of those players has displayed some clear improvement.

“I can give you a long list of guys who had their best offseason to date,” Fisher said, mentioning cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson by name. “The guys who weren’t rehabbing, they just stayed here. And they just worked. And it’s paying off for them now.”

It’s still a little early to know exactly how the results manifest themselves once the games commence, but the head coach sounded encouraged about how the work in the offseason could pay dividends with a better record to begin the year.

“Once we get closer and we start talking about it, it’s very, very important to get off to a good start,” Fisher said. “Three of our first four games are against playoff teams from last year. But we’re not going to look past Seattle. We know where the challenges are there.

“We’re a long ways away,” Fisher continued. “I think three or four days from now, these guys will look forward to working against someone else rather than themselves.”

Another young defensive back who has impressed the staff has been Maurice Alexander. A fourth-round pick out of Utah State in 2014, Alexander contributed on special teams last year, but has progressed to the point where he could push for some defensive time.

“He’s playing really fast right now, and that implies that he knows what to do,” Fisher said. “He’s sure, he’s decisive, he makes good decisions, and he’s reacting. He’s very athletic and he’s playing fast. He’s going to make a lot of plays for us.”

GAINES DAY-TO-DAY

Cornerback E.J. Gaines exited practice early, walking off the field with trainers after he was stepped on in a drill.

“We’re going to have to do some tests,” Fisher said. “He got stepped on, which is encouraging as opposed to the other things. We’ll do some tests, and we’ll find out.”

Fisher added that right now, the training staff doesn’t seem to be too concerned about Gaines’ injury.

“He’s very sore, but that’s typically can happen when you get stepped on the way he did,” Fisher said.

A sixth-round pick out of Mizzou last year, Gaines led the Rams with 14 passes defensed in his rookie season. For now, his status is day-to-day.

GETTING THE PADS ON

With the three-day acclimation period coming to an end, the Rams will put on shoulder pads for the first time tomorrow in the club’s closed special teams practice. And then the full squad will wear them for Tuesday’s session.

“What we’ve done in the past is we’ve had our first padded practice with special teams,” Fisher said. “The rest of the guys will be doing some recovery stuff, but we’ll have a good session in the morning for about an hour with pads. And then we’ll recover tomorrow afternoon, and Tuesday will be out first day with shoulder pads on.”

Fisher also said that the team appears ready to get the gear on.

“We need to put pads on, especially up front,” Fisher said. “Even the quarterbacks — quarterbacks need to get used to throwing the ball with shoulder pads on. So we’ll have some good work throughout the week.”

As Fisher referenced, the pads will aid in noticing the progress from young O-linemen like Rob Havenstein and Jamon Brown.

“It’s so hard to evaluate an offensive lineman without pads. The defense clearly has the advantage out there,” Fisher said. “I’m suspecting that JB and Rob — and the whole crew for that matter — will look a lot different once the pads go on.”

COOK’S EXCITED

Tight end Jared Cook has been quite productive in his two seasons in St. Louis, leading the team in receptions last year. But this upcoming year has him feeling a little bit better than ever before.

“This is probably the most excited I’ve been about a season since I’ve been in the NFL,” Cook said on Sunday.

wv wrote:

Joyner is kindof a forgotten man for a lot of us.
He seemed a bit lost last year.
I wonder what kind of player he’s gonna be?
Is he just another guy — or is the little guy an impact player?

w
v

It has to play out in real games, of course, but one of the repeat themes from OTAs on this year is that the light has come on for Joyner. Fisher, in talking about Joyner, said something about what a difference a year makes.

People forget that in college, Joyner was considered the leader of one of the best if not the best secondaries in college football. Last year it didn’t translate because, apparently, his head was swimming.

FISHER: Lamarcus has come on as well, not only outside, he can play inside and on the slot and the nickel. You know Lamarcus situation… what a difference a year makes for a young player to come back in year two and finally just get it. He gets it now. He’ll be productive for us.”

That kind of talk started in OTAs. Back in OTAs I think it was Gregg Wms who said something about how Joyner was light years ahead of where he was last year. Joyner was saying the same thing:

“I feel like my approach is different and that’s probably coming from the more understanding I have, the more wisdom I have and just knowing what I’m doing,” Joyner said. “Instead of running out there like a blind dog in a meat house and you don’t know which way to go, I know what I’m doing, so now I can pretty much contribute to the defense.”

I ain’t promisin nothin. But the talk about Joyner at this point this year reminds me of the talk about Quick at the same point last year.

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