RamView training camp report, 7/26/2014 (Long)

RamView, July 26, 2014
Training Camp Report from Rams Park

What should be a pretty eventful football season in St. Louis is off to a rousing start, especially if you are a Rams defensive lineman…

* QB: Good news for openers is that Sam Bradford looks fine. His throws look good, his timing with his receivers looks spot on, he’s hanging tough in the pocket making plays. He’s putting the full in full-go. Bradford made some long completions in 7-on-7 drills and should have had a long TD to Tavon Austin in 11-on-11, but threw more of a back-shoulder throw instead of letting it rip. Bradford also hard-counted the d-line offsides 3 or 4 times, which may be the only way to keep those guys honest this year. Shaun Hill still seems to be getting dialed in on his out routes; he threw some in 7-on-7 that did not look good at all. Kellen Clemens-esque. This isn’t a big surprise given his arm strength reputation, and he looks accurate otherwise. Garrett Gilbert looked very accurate himself, but when he’s behind center, you can see the game is still very fast for him right now. He’ll be running for his life a lot in preseason games if he can’t speed up his field-reading. He’s a rookie in his second day of full training camp, so of course that’s natural. I’m eager to watch his development because I like his arm. Austin Davis seemed to throw behind receivers a lot. I don’t see him breaking through.

* RB: This practice was essentially no contact, which doesn’t give me a lot to base running game observations on. The RBs were thrown to a lot, and I didn’t detect any pass-catching issues for anybody. I’m thinking the Rams intend to throw to the RBs more this season, which is a good idea, making this a good trend. I found it eye-opening that Bennie Cunningham got a lot of reps. Tre Mason was tres rapide, and doesn’t need a lot of daylight to break through the line, but we’re not going to hear a lot from him in games until he gets a LOT better on blitz pickup. He completely missed two blitz assignments in 11-on-11 that would have gotten Gilbert flattened. I don’t know where Isaiah Pead is on the depth chart because I just don’t remember him getting many reps. RB4 at best. Trey Watts showed nice quickness breaking off a long run with the threes.

* Wide receivers: Befitting the talent they have on hand, the Rams look a real mishmash at WR. Right now I don’t think there’s a true WR1, WR2, etc. Guys were moving in and out a lot. Nobody appears to be breaking through the established first six of Austin, Britt, Bailey, Quick, Givens and Pettis just yet. Emory Blake flashed on a couple of plays, and Austin Franklin had good position for a block that would have sprung one play for a big gain, and he heard about it from everybody. Good job getting yourself noticed. It’s a crying shame Bailey is going to miss the first four weeks. He is a live wire right now. Turned Brandon McGee absolutely inside out for a deep catch in 1-on-1 drills and beat Janoris Jenkins for another. Austin would have burned a blown coverage for a long TD in 11-on-11 had Bradford led him. Britt and Bradford crossed wires for what should have been a long TD 11-on-11. Britt broke in deep; Bradford threw out. Britt later made a tough catch over Marcus Roberson and hooted about it like he’d just caught it over Everson Walls to win the NFC Championship or something. Interestingly, Jeff Fisher had a friendly word with him immediately afterward. Britt’s physicality is going to be his bread-and-butter. There was a play where Janoris Jenkins had him blanketed, but as the throw came, Britt was able to ward Jenkins off for enough separation to make the catch. With the number of DBs out there who can’t out-bench Rams owner Stan Kroenke, Britt’s strength is going to come in handy. Can’t say I’m thrilled to see him in Torry Holt’s #81, but it looks like he can still play. Brian Quick was used on a lot of quick slants and screens. Looked like he handled it all right; nothing exciting.

* Tight ends: If Alex Bayer is one of the horses you’re backing in this year’s UDFA derby, nice pick. He’s a better receiver than I was led to expect. He caught everything well and made a nice 20ish-yard sideline grab in one of the team drills. It should be a tight battle between Justice Cunningham and him for the 4th TE spot. Cunningham did drop a low ball he ought to have caught in 11-on-11. I’d suppose this roster battle will be decided a lot more on blocking skills, but Bayer’s done a good job to establish he’s not a one-note player.

* O-line: O-line always seems to be behind the rest of the team at the start of camp, so I’m not going to sweat over them too much yet. But they did not look good today, particularly in pass pro. Second pick overall Greg Robinson looked pretty helpless against Robert Quinn. Chris Long beat Joseph Barksdale so badly at times it wasn’t funny. Granted, you have to take the level of competition into account. But it’s fair to be concerned with how well/soon the line can come together. Jake Long participated in individual drills, but not team drills, as expected, but Scott Wells is apparently and suddenly out again, not practicing either of the first two days. Robinson is supposed to be at guard but is being stuck out at LT for now. I’d think it wiser to cement him at guard and keep his head from spinning a lot right away. Two starters down, a rookie out of position: Paul Boudreau’s had to start playing the shell game early this year. The o-line looks much better when they get to run-block. Probably natural for this point of camp, and a good sign even if it’s not. Barrett Jones and Tim Barnes appear to have a timeshare at starting center with Wells mysteriously down. Jones was the starter today and looked better 1-on-1. With Robinson kicked out to tackle, Rodger Saffold took LG and Davin Joseph RG. Joseph had the most impressive 1-on-1 reps of the day by an o-lineman, pancaking Kendall Langford once and being pretty much an immovable tree stump on the second. The Rams may have stumbled into something good here. Travis “Treetop” Bond also did some nice work 1-on-1. Hey, in most sports, if you’re strong up the middle, you’re going to be good. I nearly forgot the coolest drill the Rams ran today. Suddenly the o-lineman all start coming over our way. I thought, that’s weird, they’re going to sign autographs in the middle of practice? No, better, they actually cross the rail and run a drill in the middle of the crowd where they push each other up the hill. The highlight was the last rep, which the coaches set up as Barrett Jones vs. Greg Robinson, Alabama vs. Auburn. Jones pushed his man up the hill faster, so, Roll Tide it is.

* Defensive line: So much to talk about here it should probably be its own post. The obvious first: Robert Quinn and Chris Long are good. They killed Robinson and Barksdale 1-on-1 and Bradford would not have survived 11-on-11 had it been full contact. Quinn and Long were pretty much getting to the end of Bradford’s drop before he was. Add Aaron Donald, who was mostly on the second unit, to those two and the Rams should have about a million sacks this year. Aaron Donald is so fast he can do the Kessel Run in 11 parsecs. 1-on-1, he’s practically past the Rams’ 2nd-string o-linemen before they’re out of their stances. He consistently beat people and forced the practice QB to step up. Sometime in his career I believe Donald will actually beat the ball to the QB on a shotgun snap. This works in run defense, too; in one of the late 11-on-11 reps, he blipped into the backfield and nearly beat Mason to the handoff. Still created a big loss. The only o-lineman Donald faced and didn’t smoke 1-on-1 was Saffold. He had the early step on him, but Rodger, one of the league’s quicker guards, had just enough make-up speed to reset and keep himself in front. But it felt like any time I turned around – poof! – there’s Aaron Donald beating somebody. I cannot think of a defensive tackle I have seen who is faster off the ball. He’s like the Flash. With Donald, the Rams’ defensive line has potential to be the Next-Greatest Show on Earth. Instead of “Who ya gonna cover?”, the question is going to be “Who ya gonna double-team?”, and the answer now is the same answer it was back then. Nobody. Another eye-opener today: Michael “The Distraction” Sam. That’s intended as a good nickname for him, to mock the media’s distraction obsession. The real distraction may end up being to the OCs around the NFL who have to figure out how to keep Sam blocked. 1-on-1, Sam showed quickness off the ball I frankly was not expecting. He consistently got his shoulder past his blocker and beat him around the edge. Many times he would have hit the QB or made him step up. Admittedly, he’s going against backups, who occasionally had the foot quickness to push him past the pocket, and Sam was very neutralized if a lineman got his hands on him. But in the right role, as a spot pass-rusher out of a wide-nine set, that won’t happen much. He blew up a run 11-on-11 anyway that strung Mason out for a loss. Playing LDE with the twos with William Hayes still out, Sam was very credible. He’s quick, he showed pretty good bend and does a good job staying low. I’m going a lot off his 1-on-1 work, but Michael Sam looked almost nothing like the scouting reports said about him. He looked nothing like the guy who struggled at the Senior Bowl and at the Combine. It’s like he had something really big on his mind then or something. If had performed in February like he’s performing now, Sam would have gone much earlier than pick #249. Remind me of that the next time I put a ton of stock on how a player performs in the offseason without taking everything into account. The rookie had a lot of good reps today. Players do run out of steam in camp. Offensive linemen do catch up. But Gerald Rivers made the final roster last year as a ninth d-lineman; I don’t see why Sam can’t do that this year.

* Linebackers: Sorry, LB is still one of my blind spots and I didn’t pick up a lot here. Looked like Phillip Steward got the call at OLB with the twos, along with Ray Ray Armstrong and Darren Bates. UDFA Aaron Hill looked good in coverage during some of the tight end 7-on-7s.

* Secondary: RamView likes me some Lamarcus Joyner. The rookie is very sticky in coverage, very competitive, and he pick-sixed Bradford in 11-on-11. That was the only pick I recall; Cody Davis dropped one. T.J. McDonald and Janoris Jenkins had pass breakups I can remember. Jenkins did get beat deep by Austin (or Bailey) in 1-on-1’s, but I wouldn’t say he had a bad practice. Brandon McGee, though, got beat awfully by Bailey 1-on-1 for a TD. Darren Woodard got beat by Austin for a long ball 11-on-11. There was definitely a blown assignment there, so that may have been on the safety. UDFA Marcus Roberson also got beaten pretty regularly. He seems just a hair late on things, so that may just be a learning curve deal. Starting DBs were as expected. Maurice Alexander was used a lot in nickel packages. He struggled big-time in drills; his head is really spinning right now, as you might expect from a rookie who didn’t get to participate in OTAs. He broke the wrong way on one kickoff coverage rep (and heard about it from about 1,500 people) and had trouble getting zone coverage assignments right. Coaches sounded pretty frustrated with him, but it didn’t keep him from getting a lot of nickel action with the ones, and he did all right there.

* Special teams: No real shakeups I could determine, at least on the kickoff units. Ones included Chase Reynolds, Ray Ray, Rodney McLeod, Daren Bates, Corey Harkey, Trumaine Johnson, Cody Davis, Brandon McGee and Isaiah Pead. If either of those last two are as challenged as I think/hope they are to make the roster, special teams is where it’s going to show, and it hasn’t to this point. Credit to Jeff Fisher for all the work the Rams do on special teams in practice. They worked on kickoff coverage for probably an hour combined. There’s a reason they’ve gotten so good on special teams.

* Strategery: A couple of years ago I lamented that Rams offensive practices consisted of a blizzard of dumpoffs. And that was their passing game in 2012. Then I got excited last year when they started camp with an attitude that they were going to air the ball out a lot more. We see how that worked out in 2013: a 1-3 September that helped keep the Rams out of the playoffs. In 2014, it’s dumpoff time again. Sigh. It’s who we are. They did throw to RBs a noticeable amount, and that hasn’t been much of a weapon in the Ram offense for a couple of years. I think it’s a good idea to do more of that. No fun wrinkles otherwise, other than Tavon Austin getting one handoff. They’re usually not shy of blitzing early in camp, but I didn’t see as much blitzing as I expected, especially with Gregg Williams at DC. I’m sure he’s got no shortage of blitzes drawn up.

* Cheers: Muggy weather today but not oppressive thanks to cloud cover. It’s supposed to get even muggier, though, so take precautions if you head over. Practice seemed long, 2 ½ hours, and it started on time. Crowd looked like it was in the 1,500 range. Further proof St. Louis is a baseball town: I was able to walk clear across the facility and get a spot right on the rail for the linemen’s 1-on-1 drills. However, earlier, as I came in to Rams Park, I cannot believe I passed up the opportunity to dunk a Rams cheerleader wearing a Russell Wilson jersey at the dunking booth. Got to get my priorities right. If you want to be at the spot where the o-line did the hill drill, it was marked off on the hill with bright orange lines, and there’s a gap in the railing set up with a cordon, kind of like the way people get into a club. Also, it looks like fans can access much more of the back fields than we could in the past. Railing goes all the way around the far practice field. I didn’t test that today but may try it my next trip.

* What’s next?: I will try to stick to my original plan of covering Tuesday’s practice, and then hit the open scrimmage at the Dome on Satruday 8/2. The Rams have several rookies off to pretty nice starts; we’ll look to see who maintains their momentum and for the o-line to get healthier and catch up with the rest of the team.

— Mike