Chris Shula raves about Rams assistant Jimmy Lake: ‘He’s awesome’

Brock Vierra

https://theramswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/rams/2026/10/31/rams-jimmy-lake-chris-shula-defensive-coach/92519077007/?taid=6ae5e436f24b6b00016d1deb&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

One of the biggest switch-ups Sean McVay made to his coaching staff this season was to promote defensive backs coach Jimmy Lake to defensive pass game coordinator following the departure of Aubrey Pleasant. The move was supplemented by the additions of Trent McDuffie, whom Lake coached at the University of Washington, and free agent Jaylen Watson.

Lake has a loving toughness about him that gets the best out of his players. McDuffie commented on that during his first press conference, and now defensive coordinator Chris Shula spoke about that coaching style recently by diving into how it has impacted their revamped secondary.

“He’s awesome,” stated Shula. “One of the best people, best coaches I’ve been around. A great friend of mine and you see it with those guys and how they’re playing. I think he’s tough on the guys, but he has a great relationship with them. He shows that he can make them better. Those players will do anything for him.

“Obviously, his relationship goes back with Trent from high school, I think, when he started recruiting him. I think he’s starting to build that same rapport with ‘J-Wat’, with Josh [Wallace], with [Emmanuel] Forbes. You see those guys getting better and better. He’s an awesome coach, and we’re really lucky to have him.”

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Rams CB Trent McDuffie, C Coleman Shelton, TE Colby Parkinson and WR Jordan Whittington are questionable for Sunday’s game against the Chargers.

LS Joe Cardona is doubtful.

(Whittington’s back tightened up after yesterday’s practice.)

They’re hopeful on McDuffie.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
McVay said Shelton and McDuffie will be limited participants in today’s practice, but Parkinson will not participate.

“Hopeful” about McDuffie, “but we’ll continue to see” where McDuffie’s at prior to the game.

This Between the Horns episode is quite good.

SFdata9ers@sfdata9ers
Defense Run Stuff Rate: Last 3 Weeks

Zooey wrote:

A “clean out” surgery on a hamstring—medically known as debridement—means a surgeon is clearing away damaged, frayed, or dead tissue, along with painful scar tissue or calcifications, to help the area finally heal. This term has recently been used in sports media to describe procedures for athletes (like NFL wide receiver Davante Adams). It typically refers to one of two clinical scenarios

All this indicates that Adams has had hamstring injuries before and that they healed problematically and have to be cleaned up. And we know he’s had them before.

Of all the scenarios your faithful Robot lists, this has to be the milder one, since after the procedure they said he would be back in the shorter time frame. That’s the first option your Robot lists, namely

“The tendon becomes thickened, frayed, or filled with microscopic tears and scar tissue that cause persistent pain. The Procedure: Through a small incision or an endoscopic (camera-guided) approach, the surgeon uses micro-instruments to shave or cut away the unhealthy, degenerative parts of the tendon….While a simple debridement (just cleaning out dead tissue) has a faster timeline than a full tendon reattachment, any surgical intervention on the hamstring requires a period of protected healing.
• For high-level athletes undergoing a clean-out and minor repair, the timeline is often quoted around 6 to 10 weeks to return to play.
• For major tendon reattachments, recovery typically takes 3 to 6 months.”

There’s no way this was anything but the first, simpler procedure and so it did not involve reattachment.

Anyway yes his hamstring had problems before:

• December 14, 2025: Thigh Hamstring Sprain/Pull
• September 26, 2024: Thigh Hamstring Sprain/Pull

from 12/17, 2025: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6892575/2025/12/17/rams-davante-adams-hamstring-injury/?eafs_enabled=false

Adams has dealt with a pair of hamstring issues this season. One popped up early in a Week 13 loss to the Carolina Panthers, and he’s managed it with limited practices since. But he aggravated that pull against the Lions on Sunday.

From the wiki:

In a 41–34 win over Detroit in Week 15, Adams aggravated an injury to his left hamstring and ultimately was held out for the remainder of the regular season….missing the Rams’ final three games

On January 10, 2026, Adams had five receptions for 72 yards in the Rams’ 34–31 win over Carolina Panthers in an NFC Wild Card Round game.[186] Adams was held to just two 12-yard receptions in an NFC Divisional Round game against the Chicago Bears, but one helped set up a fourth quarter touchdown and the other came on a game-winning field goal drive in the Rams’ 20–17 overtime victory. In the NFC Championship Game rematch against Seattle, Adams had four receptions for 89 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter of the Rams’ 31–27 loss to the Seahawks.

SFdata9ers@sfdata9ers
Composite Pass vs. Run Blocking Scores

LAR does it all – the most complete OL.
BUF (only) with elite run blocking.
You gotta feel for Jeremiyah Love and Ashton Jeanty…

Rams rank 20th.

Ryan Paganetti@RyanPaganetti
Run game consistency through Week 7👇

4+ yard rate vs. stuff rate (0 yards or fewer).

Which offenses consistently create productive runs while avoiding plays that go nowhere?

Upper left = good
Lower right = room to improve

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Here’s Sean McVay on whether the Rams are having trade discussions after the moves that the 49ers and Seahawks just pulled off.

Granted, there’s still two weeks before the deadline. Hard to pull a trigger at 3-4 with low assets and cap space. But it is interesting.

Sarah Barshop@sarahbarshop
Sean McVay said Davante Adams had the clean out surgery on his hamstring. When asked whether that would affect Adams’ timeline to return, McVay said, “based on how everything went,” the expectation is that the WR will return “on the shorter end” of the initial 6-10 week estimate.

Jared Smola@SmolaDS
Run Defense Power Rankings through Week 7

VAS Live@vaslive12
The NFL has been some of its sloppiest and least competitive it’s ever been.

We still see preseason football well into October.

Coaches can’t properly practice with the players; training and conditioning are weaker, which is why we see so many basic injuries; they took away 1 preseason game; many starters barely play in the preseason, if at all; and training camp is a joke.

Players are trying to go from zero to 100 instead of easing into the regular season. They do little, then wham, go full throttle when the season starts.

If Mahomes is hitting a wall, it’s not the league around him; it’s his style catching up with him, as it historically does with QBs who rely on physical play.

I said for years that each year he should slowly transition to a pocket passer if he wants to have a long, effective career.

He’s still relying on instinct and physical play to guide him, and because he is so good at that, he can still make it work to a certain extent.

But each year it will get tougher and tougher, especially now that he has that injury.

Mahomes’ best shot at longevity as a great QB is to transition to reading defenses and pocket passing.
Stop resorting to leaving the pocket after the first read breaks down.

Mahomes is still an effective player. He has intangibles like leadership that help him greatly. With the Chiefs at 5-1, he’s still being effective and is still more valuable than most of the other QBs in the league.

But even that won’t be good enough over time if his abilities start to fade and he can’t make up for it in other areas.

LAFB Network@LAFBNetwork
Kyren Williams

-LEADS the NFL in broken-tackle rate
-ONLY RB with fewer than 100 carries among the top 10 rushers.

Chasing a 4th straight 1,100+ yard season…