the OLBs

Jourdan Rodrigue@JourdanRodrigue
Jared Verse told me in camp that he and Sean McVay talked a lot about how he wants to lead teammates while also being a vocal presence against opponents. “I’m going to let (teammates) know, I got you. I’m never going to demean you. … Now when it’s somebody in a different

colored jersey that’s a whole different conversation. That’s my true personality, but I feel like I have two different sorts of leadership in that way.” We talked about how the Rams have missed a presence like that, a bit like like Jalen Ramsey, on defense.
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The Rams’ new-look outside linebackers room is full of all kinds of talk

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5692068/2024/08/14/la-rams-outside-linebackers-joe-coniglio/?source=emp_shared_article

LOS ANGELES — The Rams’ outside linebackers talk. A lot.

… In more ways than you might think. As position coach Joe Coniglio entered his second year with a group featuring just one veteran player in Michael Hoecht (who switched to the position last season) and a bunch of rookie and second-year pass rushers, he wanted the group to connect with each other.

So he opened a free-flowing period during meetings (either before they begin, or right in the middle of longer sessions to break the monotony) where any topic is on the table for discussion.

In the spring, guys had some fun with this — favorite foods, music, “what-if” scenarios. They play music during breaks, and crack jokes. As training camp began, Coniglio wanted to push his players a little harder. During a meeting break as camp opened, he asked his players: What is the most difficult thing you’ve ever endured?

Rookie Jared Verse remembers thinking, “This is a question about football, right?” But then Hoecht started talking. He shared a personal story (which The Athletic agreed to keep private). Players got emotional. It felt like Hoecht had opened a safe space for everyone — including equipment managers and assistants in the room — to share thoughts and stories men, especially men in football, often keep to themselves.

“To have everyone say it, you’re in a room with a bunch of grown men so, you know, that toxic masculinity could take place,” said Verse. “But then Hoecht was kind of the first person to (open up). If Hoecht does it, then it’s OK for all of us to kind of say our true feelings.”

Hoecht said he was “glad” to be so open with his teammates, an example they then followed.

“We spend a lot of time with each other throughout the year, and I always feel like you’re going to get more out of people if they know who you are and they trust you, if they know the real you,” Hoecht said. “After that, people shared some good stories. … I just kind of got the ball rolling. We got a really, really cool group of guys. We’ve all had such different paths.”

Coniglio, 39, realized he had tapped into something special, and the dynamic among players has helped him grow, too.

In his first season with the Rams in 2023, he was still finding his way as an NFL position coach after over half a decade in college football, including at the Naval Academy. He was a rookie, much like his entire group of outside linebackers (except for Hoecht). That season, the Rams needed third-round draft pick Byron Young to grow up in a hurry because he’d be starting opposite Hoecht, after the front office gutted the defensive roster. All throughout his rookie year, Coniglio would text Young: I’m in this with you. I’m learning with you.

“When I first got (here), it was like … he’s finding his way too,” said Young, who finished the season with eight sacks. “At the very beginning I probably questioned it a little bit, but never again. He’s been hard on me ever since and I appreciate that. He doesn’t let nothin’ go by. One thing about Coach Joe — if you’ve got a good play, he says, ‘it could be better.’ And that’s what I like about him.”

The Rams continued to invest in a young group of pass rushers in the draft this offseason by adding Verse in the first round. Verse came into spring practices with a well-established bond between himself and former Florida State teammate Braden Fiske, for whom the Rams traded up to draft in Round 2 in part because of their chemistry.

That dynamic has been obvious. But Verse also quickly developed rapport with Young. Whenever they pass rushed together and then rotated off the field during training camp at Loyola Marymount University this summer, they’d often go over their previous series of plays together, laughing and talking trash over highlights and huddling with Coniglio over any errors.

“We know when to play around, have fun, but we know when it’s time to get to business,” Verse said.

The Rams additionally drafted former Washington State pass-rusher Brennan Jackson in the fifth round. He’s recovering from a soft tissue injury in the preseason, but Jackson impressed coaches in training camp with his speed and power combinations. The team is also experimenting with smaller, though ultra-fast second-year outside linebacker Nick Hampton as a speed/changeup player.

The entire room looks up to Hoecht, and the irony of that is not lost on the former undrafted free agent who spent the first couple years of his career in L.A. simply trying not to get cut. Through playing in multiple roles over his time in Los Angeles, from mostly special teams to rotational defensive lineman to outside linebacker, Hoecht has learned a lot. He wants to share that knowledge with the younger players, who grill him with questions during meetings and between snaps.

“Hoecht in the meeting room, he doesn’t get a thing wrong,” said Young, laughing. “He’s always there, he’s a mentor for me. … And he’s always been the same guy. That’s one thing about Hoecht that I appreciate, he’s always been the same guy that he’s going to be there if you need something.”

No question is off-limits in the meeting rooms, nor any topic. It’s not just that Coniglio has encouraged a space for his players to talk to each other all the time and bond in a real way — it’s also that he listens to them, on matters off the field and on it.

“He’s not a player, but he knows that his job is ‘how can I coach better’?” said Hoecht. “‘How can I teach this better? How can I talk about this better?’ And even small details outside of football, like ‘How do I make this meeting more entertaining so guys aren’t nodding off?’ He’s done a good job when he kind of feels the monotony (set in) of breaking things up. …

“I think he’s taken a big step in the delivery of coaching, and I think guys are responding well to that. … And even his mastery of the pass rush fundamentals, I feel like all the time, at least once a week we’re trying something new in (individuals), trying a new drill. We’ll come watch it and then we will collaborate as a group.”

Coniglio will even scrap certain drills if players verbalize to him that they don’t feel it applies to real situations in games. He wants his players to feel a part of the process as much as he wants to maximize what legitimately works for them.

“Last year, he was good,” Young said. “This year he’s more open-minded, and he’s more open to ideas. He’s not about, ‘what I say goes.’ He’s always open to ‘How do y’all feel about that?’ He’ll call me and ask, ‘What did you feel about practice?’ … I feel like it makes the game better. It works for us because, if you think about it, we’re the ones out there. That’s what he always says: We’re the ones out there, (he) is coaching. ‘You guys are on the field, so you know what works and what doesn’t work.’ He says, ‘I’m here to adjust it (for you).’”

The Rams’ young outside linebackers and their equally young position coach have all made an effort to really hear each other. That was their first major step in understanding how to rush together.

They sure make themselves heard on the field, too.

At practice against the Dallas Cowboys in Oxnard, Calif., last week, Verse made his presence known with definitive wins in one-on-one reps. In 11-on-11 periods, he got plenty of pressure off the edge against the Cowboys’ first-team offense, nearly had an interception and got into the backfield on a run stop — and jawed at the Cowboys’ players the entire time.

“He talks, which I like,” said Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott, smiling. “He can talk. But he was a great player, he was back there.

“To be able to talk, you better be getting back there and making plays — and he did that.”