Rams’ Aaron Donald gets back to the business of playing

Gary Klein

http://www.latimes.com/sports/rams/la-sp-rams-report-20170913-story.html

His holdout because of a contract dispute is over and he is back on the practice field with Rams teammates.

But “the business side of things,” as defensive lineman Aaron Donald repeatedly described it Wednesday, continues to hover.

In the meantime, Donald is preparing for Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins.

“My main thing is just football,” he said after participating in full-team practice for the first time this season.

Despite his prolonged absence, which included sitting out the Rams’ season-opening victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, Donald is on track to start against Washington, coach Sean McVay said.

“He looked fast, looked fresh,” McVay said, adding, “Didn’t look like he missed a beat.”

Donald, who has two seasons remaining on his rookie contract, sat out offseason workouts, attended but did not participate in a mandatory June minicamp and sat out all of training camp because he wants a new deal.

Donald and his representatives at CAA Sports are believed to be seeking a contract that will make him the NFL’s highest-paid defensive player.

Now that he is on site, the Rams might be more inclined to negotiate the finer points of an extension with the three-time Pro Bowl selection.

Donald was asked if he had achieved what he wanted through is holdout, whether the Rams had made him an offer that would make him the league’s highest-paid defensive player, and whether he was close to a deal.

Donald, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with CAA Sports across the front, responded to each question by saying that he would let his agents handle it.

“I love football, so being away from it definitely was tough,” he said, adding, “The way I chose to handle it is the way I chose to handle it and I’m here now.”

Donald worked out in Pittsburgh the last few months and said he was in “great shape.” He acknowledged, however, that it was not the same as playing football.

“So, just going day by day here and just seeing how I feel as the week goes on,” he said.

Donald played in a 4-3 scheme during his first three NFL seasons. New defensive coordinator Wade Phillips has installed a 3-4.

Not a problem, Donald said.

“I don’t feel like I’m behind or anything as far as knowing the plays,” he said. “I might mess up here and there, but when I was out there … I felt pretty solid.”

Throughout Donald’s holdout, teammates supported him and said they looked forward to welcoming him back.

Donald was in team and position group meetings Monday. But Wednesday was the first full practice since his return.

“It’s nice seeing him across the line of scrimmage again, making practice hard for us again,” quarterback Jared Goff said.

It felt “normal” to have Donald on the field, defensive tackle Michael Brockers said.

And there apparently was no drop-off in Donald’s performance.

“He’s making plays, he’s getting to the backfield before me, and stuff like that,” Brockers said. “You definitely notice he’s out there because you’re like ‘Dang! I should have made that play’ and you kind of get a little jealous, but it’s all love. … We feel complete with him here.”

It remains to be seen if, or how much, Donald plays Sunday.

General manager Les Snead and the team’s analytics staff has studied how many snaps players returning from holdouts have logged, McVay said. So Donald will be monitored throughout the week and on game day.

Redskins coach Jay Gruden said that he expected Donald to be lined up in a familiar spot, just off an offensive guard’s outside shoulder.

“He’s got every move you want — he can power rush you, he can spin you, he can rip you, he gets off the snap with great tempo and he’s fast,” Gruden said, “so it will be a great challenge.”

The Rams recently made several financial moves with other players that appear to be laying the groundwork for a possible new deal for Donald and others such as linebacker Alec Ogletree and safety Lamarcus Joyner.

During his holdout, neither the Rams nor Donald’s representatives publicly criticized each other.

Asked whether he felt animosity toward the Rams front office, he gave an unemotional response.

“Just business,” he said, “that’s all.”

Etc.

Safety Maurice Alexander (shoulder), cornerback Kayvon Webster (shoulder), linebacker Connor Barwin (rest) and offensive lineman Andrew Whitworth (rest) did not practice, according to the Rams injury report.

Staff writer Lindsey Thiry contributed to this report.[

Rams’ McVay to face former boss Gruden, Redskins

https://sports.yahoo.com/rams-mcvay-face-former-boss-gruden-redskins-234845484–nfl.html

Come Sunday afternoon, McVay will try to beat his old boss and continue the Rams’ bold start to the season.

McVay, 31, worked for the Redskins for seven seasons, including the last three as offensive coordinator under Gruden, before being hired by the Rams as the youngest head coach in modern league history.

”Well, honestly I didn’t think he’d get one this quick,” Gruden said with a laugh. ”He’s pretty young, but we had some success on offense and he did great things with (Kirk) Cousins. … There’s a lot to like about Sean once you get to know him. I just didn’t know that people would give him that opportunity at such a young age, but once they started giving him interviews, I figured that he would get one of them, because like I said, he has all of those traits to be a good head coach.”

Naturally, the big focus Sunday will be McVay’s familiarity with the Redskins, particularly with Cousins. While Cousins became a full-time NFL starter and set and broke the franchise record for passing yards under McVay, he had a rough start to 2017 in a 30-17 loss to Philadelphia.

”Coach Gruden taught me a lot of stuff, so I know he’s mixed it up,” McVay said. ”I’ve got a lot of respect for him. He’s taught me a large portion of things that I know and things that we do here, so we’ve got some familiarity with each other. But, I can’t say enough about how much I respect him and what he’s done for my coaching career.”

The mutual admiration will pause for some three hours Sunday.

Some things to watch for when the Rams (1-0) host the Redskins (0-1).

DONALD’S BACK: The three-time Pro Bowler wasn’t at the Coliseum last Sunday after ending his four-month holdout. He’ll start against the Redskins, although it’s not sure how much he’ll play. He’s playing for $1.8 million this season after failing to reach agreement on a contract that likely would have made him the highest-paid defensive player in football. Donald said he learned ”pretty much everything” he needs to know about defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ new 3-4 scheme during his brief time in the offseason program before he began his holdout in May.

UNBALANCED REDSKINS: Considering McVay ran Washington’s offense the past three years, it’s imperative for Gruden to strike a run-pass balance that was lacking in the loss to Philadelphia. The Redskins ran on just 17 of 61 offensive snaps, so little that Robert Kelley couldn’t find any kind of rhythm and the Eagles could focus on stopping the passing game. That won’t work against a Rams defense that tormented the Colts last week, including returning two interceptions for touchdowns and getting a safety.

COUSINS IN FOCUS: While Washington’s offensive line struggling in the opener contributed to Cousins’ two fumbles and there were some drops, his interception and a few errant passes are squarely on his shoulders. Cousins sees his and the offense’s problems as correctable, and Gruden doesn’t sound worried. ”We just have to keep trying to work with him and hopefully drill him in practice and get him better,” Gruden said.

GOFF’S GROWTH: Goff passed for a career-high 306 yards and a touchdown in his first victory as an NFL starter. The best stat? ”No turnovers,” McVay said. ”That’s an outstanding stat to have as a quarterback and then I think he did a great job of distributing the ball. When you see four of your top guys all have over 50 yards receiving, that’s a credit to him and the decision making.” Overall, Goff completed passes to eight receivers.

THIRD DOWN AND OUT: The Redskins’ third-down defense was worst in the NFL last season and allowed Philadelphia to convert on 8 of 14 opportunities last week. Gruden considers the pass rush, or lack of an effective one, an issue along with not wrapping up the quarterback. ”When plays are there, we just need to make them,” cornerback Josh Norman said. ”When we have the quarterback wrapped up, we’ve got to bring him down. When we have our hands on the ball, we’ve got to bring that down as well.”

Sean McVay fan club still exists among Redskins

John Keim
ESPN Staff Writer

http://www.espn.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/33108/sean-mcvay-fan-club-still-exists-among-redskins

ASHBURN, Virginia — Washington Redskins coach Jay Gruden spotted it when Sean McVay was barely old enough to drink. That’s why he hired him in the UFL. And it’s why Gruden tried to hire him away from the Redskins when he landed in Cincinnati.

The Redskins saw it, too. It’s why they denied Gruden’s request.

The players? They weren’t surprised, either. McVay spent seven seasons in Washington, working his way up from a 23-year-old assistant tight ends coach to tight ends coach to offensive coordinator. Now the coach of the Los Angeles Rams, McVay’s offense scored 30 of the team’s 46 points in a win over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

“He’s like a mad scientist,” Redskins tight end Niles Paul said. “He’s a genius, man. He’s like a football genius.”

Jared Goff plays another good game and Kirk Cousinsstruggles for Washington. It’s not as if there’s pressure on Gruden, who has three more years on his contract.

And it’s not as if the Redskins’ struggles are directly related to losing McVay. They also lost receivers DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon. Some of the same questions that arose after Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles existed under McVay, from play-calling to the lack of a run game. The Redskins’ offense struggled at times last December as well, scoring a combined 25 points in home losses to the Carolina Panthers and the New York Giants.

That said, the Redskins were long aware of McVay’s football acumen.

“He is organized and detailed,” Gruden said.

Those were two reasons why he let McVay call plays the past three seasons. Gruden said he married the Redskins’ existing system with his own but, because he’d sometimes uses Bengals terminology, he opted to let McVay call plays instead.

“It was a steady, good flow that he had about him,” Gruden said. “I didn’t have to step in a whole lot. I did from time to time, but he is a good playcaller. We just kind of let him roll with it.”

Gruden and McVay both relate well to the players: Gruden is comfortable operating a little more off-schedule, like the former quarterback he was in college. He’ll admit to going with a play based more on instinct. McVay, numerous people have said, was more about the details. Not that both coaches don’t have the other skill; each has their strengths. Both are personable, perhaps one reason they’ve remained close. Gruden said they talk every week or so. He called McVay to congratulate him Sunday.

McVay has always talked about how much he liked that Gruden let him develop as a playcaller by giving him freedom. McVay also coached three seasons under Mike Shanahan.

“You could tell he learned a lot under the tutelage of Mike Shanahan,” Redskins tackle Trent Williams said. “He learned a lot about how to make plays look the same that aren’t the same. He knows defenses extremely well so he knows how to set people up. He studies film more than you would believe. His ability to predict what’s coming and to put the players in the right position to me stood out. And what I liked that he did from a players’ standpoint he let everyone do what they did best. He didn’t have a cookie cutter style.”

Williams said Gruden does the same.

The player also said McVay took a big-picture approach, something Paul noticed when he moved to tight end in 2012.

“He goes through the whole progression of the offense,” Paul said. “He’ll tell you from the O-line to the receivers what the responsibility is, where he’s supposed to be at. A complete grasp of the offensive system. You feel like now he has a chance to be totally him. That’s what he’s always wanted to be. I know for a fact he’s always been capable of that.”

He’s a football junkie.

“I’m not surprised by his success because he puts the work in,” Redskins tight end Vernon Davissaid. “He stands out. His energy. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is or where he is, he’s always talking football, talking about plays. He’s even going back and reminding me of some plays I had in San Francisco that I don’t even remember. He remembers and brings it up.”

They also know some of what McVay will want to do Sunday; the tough part will be knowing when — and then stopping it.

“He’ll run naked [bootlegs] and keepers,” Davis said. “He’ll take shots deep. He loves to go deep. He loves the tight end so he’ll use them. You’ll see a lot of seam routes by the tight ends with him.”

“He’ll try to hit three or four shot plays,” Gruden said, “and attack our defense with some play-action shots. Some sort of play-action bombarooski. Those are the ones that make or break a close game. You hit that and it changes momentum. It changes everything. We have to figure out a way to hit some and I know he is.”

fromWashington Redskins HC Jay Gruden Conference Call

(On if he always assumed that Coach McVay would get a head coaching job)

“Well, honestly I didn’t think he’d get one this quick (laughs). He’s pretty young, but we had some success on offense and he did great things with (Redskins QB) Kirk Cousins obviously and he’s very organized. The whole trick is to get in front of a room and I had a feeling that once he got in front of a room, some general managers and some owners that he would be able to get in there because he’s very presentable, he’s very knowledgeable, very smart, he’s a very loyal guy and very passionate about the game. So, there’s a lot to like about Sean once you get to know him. I just didn’t know that people would give him that opportunity at such a young age, but once they started giving him interviews, I figured that he would get one of them because like I said, he has all of those traits to be a good head coach.”

(On what stood out on tape about the offense that shows him Coach McVay has made his imprint already)

“I just said, yeah, he just has a great ability to change it up. You don’t know what’s coming. You think, first and 10, stop Todd Gurley and then they do a play-pass and launch it over your head or they do a boot leg and hit somebody in the flat for a gain of nine and then they come back – he’s just got a great way of changing up the tempos and keeping you off balance. That’s what this offense is built around with the quick passes, boot legs that are friendly for the quarterback and then obviously staying out of third and longs is the key. But, if you can keep the offense friendly for the quarterback, you can have a lot of success because there’s a lot of ways that you can attack the defense and not make it too difficult on the ‘Q’ (quarterback).

(On what his initial idea was to hand over play calling duties to McVay at such a young age)

“I think when I first got the job here, I didn’t want to just totally change the entire system. Some of the terminology in place here in the running game and some of the play-action passes and keepers and all that stuff. So, the drop-back game we tried to implement from what I’ve known from over the past with my brother (Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Jon Gruden) and in Cincinnati and Sean has a great idea of that also because he was with us in Tampa Bay for a year and he was also with me in the UFL (United Football League) for one year. So, I felt like just from talking to the quarterbacks, instead of me having to tell him what the call to the quarterback and so forth, it was quicker to let him do it. We came up with the game plans together and situational – type football we came up together and then I still had a little bit of input, but I let him handle it because he was good and did a fine job.”

(On if there’s something about his personality that makes him a good play caller)

“He’s detailed. He’s very detailed in what he’s teaching. He’s got a system that he believes in – he knows he has a good combination from what he learned from the Shanahans and obviously what he learned from my brother and hopefully here from me a little bit, so, it’s a combination. And it’s important to protect the quarterback, which is I think the most important thing you can do as far as a play caller. You can have all the big plays in the world, but you have to protect the quarterback, so he’s got a good foundation for protections and getting the quarterback out of the pocket and getting him off the same spot and letting him move around and be comfortable. That’s all key.”

(On what he saw from Rams QB Jared Goff in the first game and if he can already see McVay’s imprint on him)

“Yeah, obviously they scored a lot of points and they were in great situations. The defense got two touchdowns for them and they had a big lead, so it’s a lot easier for a play caller, without a doubt. You’re comfortable and your whole playbook is open. It’s a little bit more difficult when you’re trailing by seven or 10 or something like that and you have third and longs that you’ve got to deal with. But you can see his imprint without a doubt. The play-passes, the nakeds (boot legs), to the running game and obviously the drop-back passing game with all the stacks and all the different formations that you’re going to get. He’s done a good job of implementing it, making it easy for Jared and Jared did a great job of executing and that’s what you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have a guy that can handle calling all those plays and formations, but then you have to execute it and Jared did a good job.”

(On if there was anything that McVay struggled with when he first started as the play caller in Washington)

“Not really. We worked on the game plan together. We had O-line coaches help in the running game, I helped with third downs, we had a coach help with the red zone, so it wasn’t like Sean was the only one putting the game plan together. We had a lot of people, a lot of input in the game plan. I’m sure he has that there with (Rams Offensive Line) Coach (Aaron) Kromer and (Rams Tight Ends Coach) Shane (Waldron) and the other coaches he has there, (Rams Offensive Coordinator Matt) LaFleur, they’re helping with the game plan. Once you have a game plan in, you have your situations and you have your first 15 (plays of the game) and then it’s just a steady flow of how to call the plays. It’s a matter of how you use the people around you and I’m sure he’s got the resources to have good people around and help him.”

Redskins/NFL Perspective
Jay Gruden mentored Sean McVay. Now he has to beat him.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/jay-gruden-mentored-sean-mcvay-now-he-has-to-beat-him/2017/09/13/fd0f92f2-98af-11e7-82e4-f1076f6d6152_story.html?utm_term=.710cf9179252

For Jay Gruden, the timing is unfortunate, if not cruel. As the Washington Redskins’ coach toils to fix a struggling offense, look at what he faces this week: former coordinator Sean McVay and the ghost of a good unit past.

It’s a quagmire of perception, really. After one game, it’s laughably early to make any strong statements about Gruden’s return to play-calling or the impact of losing McVay, who is now the Los Angeles Rams’ coach. But the NFL is a weekly, unapologetic festival of overreaction. Right now McVay is hot, Gruden is not, and that has to be a major reason Washington’s formerly proficient offense looks so feeble, right?

Sometimes football is that simple. Most times, however, it isn’t. It would be wise to resist the temptation to elevate McVay’s influence to mythical heights after watching him lead the Rams to a 46-9 victory over Indianapolis in his coaching debut last week. McVay, the 31-year-old wunderkind whose coaching DNA includes Mike Shanahan and both Gruden brothers, is missed. But is he irreplaceable? The answer, again, isn’t simple.

This is another test of what Gruden has built. He promoted McVay to a high-profile job and spurred the development of a quality young coach. Before you can talk about the impact McVay had on Washington, you must remember the impact Washington had on him. From Shanahan to Gruden, he received a PhD in offensive football here. Then he added his creativity to it. Now he runs his own team.

Yes, Gruden must make up for the loss. But McVay is a spoke in a system that has flourished, not the entire wheel. The offense is still creative and flexible, but the team clearly misses McVay’s meticulous, organized approach and his ability to teach and inspire the players.

Gruden, the play-caller, is fine. If you review Sunday’s 30-17 loss to Philadelphia , his plays produced ample opportunity to move the football and score points. But the team was sloppy in just about every area. That’s an indictment of preparation and motivation, which Gruden, offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh and the rest of the offensive coaches must correct. The players must show more pride, too. And that’s where McVay really stood out.

“Sean has presence, and it’s hard to teach presence,” quarterback Kirk Cousins said. “He has charisma. It’s hard to teach. And it’s hard to teach being a good communicator. You kind of either have it or you don’t. You can talk about his age, but he had presence when he was 20 years old. There are a lot of guys who are 65 and don’t have any presence. . . . He has something that doesn’t grow on trees.”

After the Rams hired McVay, Cousins gave him a signed jersey that included the heartfelt words, “I owe you my career.” In the two seasons that McVay called plays, Cousins threw for 9,083 yards, established himself as a solid NFL starter and earned about $44 million off that productivity. Although burdened by red-zone inefficiency, the offense averaged 403.4 yards per game last season, rising to third in the NFL. It was inevitable McVay would be coveted, just as it was inevitable 30-something wide receivers Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson would receive big contract offers that Washington would be reluctant to match.

With three significant pieces gone from last year’s offense, it’s impossible to compare that unit to this one. Oranges have replaced apples, and let’s wait at least until midseason — okay, a month, impatient ones — to judge how they taste. In the meantime, it’s fair to scrutinize whether this team is showing signs of progress in adapting to life without McVay’s organizational gifts.

Ask any person in the Washington locker room, and he will start by mentioning how detailed, energetic and smart the young coach is. He didn’t reinvent Gruden’s system, which is an adaptation of the popular and proven West Coast offense. He just explained it better than anyone. And because McVay is football obsessed by nature, the offense took on his serious approach.

“You sit down and talk to him,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “He knows football inside and out. There’s not a position, there’s not a scheme that he doesn’t know. He can sit up there in the box or on the sideline and tell you what’s happened, what’s going to happen and why it happened. In this game, any time somebody has that type of knowledge of the game, they’re going to be highly sought after.”

Four years ago, Gruden earned this job because of his good work as the Cincinnati offensive coordinator. His style in leading an offense was similarly effective, and it should be again. He’s clever. He relates well with players. But he’s also loose and not as rigid about particulars as McVay. He’s more focused on the big picture than McVay was because, you know, he’s the head coach.

But here’s the biggest difference: As a former quarterback who played professionally for a long time, Gruden coaches on instinct. McVay was a wide receiver who stopped playing upon graduating from Miami (Ohio) and immediately went into coaching. He is an analytical coach.

The game is like a science project to McVay, and he’s an A-plus student. At age 50, Gruden has a feel for the game that McVay may never acquire. There are positives and challenges to both coaching methods. The players are adjusting to the dissimilar styles. Or maybe they just need to suck it up and perform.

“To be honest, man, sometimes it’s splitting hairs,” Williams said. “Sometimes it’s more on the players than it is on the coach. You can have a brilliant scheme to run, but if my players don’t run it the right way or if I have one person missing his assignment and it equates to a loss of five on a play, everybody looks at you, like, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing.’

“It’s a pulley system. We have to depend on them to put us in the right situation, and they have to depend on us to make that right situation better and give them results.”

McVay wasn’t perfect during his two seasons calling plays, but the results were good. After one game and several preseason glimpses, Gruden is straining to live up to an old standard. Never mind that it’s a standard he oversaw.

That’s the burden of mentorship. Raise a prodigy properly, and then people start thinking you have to catch up.

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-1/Monday-Wrap-Up-A-Plan-for-Donalds-Return/a20017c9-8c74-4898-9e7a-2b7726c086b1

Myles Simmons

PAIR OF CONTRACT EXTENSIONS

Los Angeles has signed a pair of players to contract extensions: punter Johnny Hekker and defensive lineman Ethan Westbrooks. Hekker’s two-year contract extension keeps him with the club through the 2022 season, and Westbrooks’ one-year extension keeps him signed through 2018.

“Being able to get a player of Johnny’s caliber — you get around Johnny, he’s a special person, he’s a special player,” McVay said. “He’s been very productive — an All-Pro player the last couple years. And then what he brings to the locker room matches up with the production you see on the field in terms of the leadership, the intangibles.

“And then Ethan’s a guy that I’ve been very pleased with,” McVay added of Westbrooks. “I think, really, in the last couple weeks you’ve seen him turn it on. Thought he made a handful of plays where he played with power and was a physical force on the inside for us. And glad to get those two guys taken care of.”

McVay was asked if signing Hekker and Westbrooks to extensions was part of a larger plan in relation to a possible contract for Donald. And while McVay isn’t necessarily intimately involved in managing contracts and the cap, he recognizes the importance of the front office having a big-picture outlook for the organization. So it’s not just about the defensive tackle.

“I think there’s a handful of guys that are very important people to us that are coming up on the end of their contracts,” McVay said. “So you always have a big-picture perspective in mind when you do things like this. But the first thing is, we valued those two players and wanted them to be a part of this for years to come. So that’s the first thing.”

“But anything that you do, I think Tony, Les, and Kevin, they do an excellent job of kind of having a long-term vision in mind for how we want to set things up and then what that allows us to do with the way the cap is structured to try to, first and foremost, take care of your own,” McVay continued, “because there’s a handful of guys on our roster that have been here, that were draft picks, or that have been here a handful of years that you want to reward and you want to make sure they’re Rams for a long time because of the way that they do things.”

Rich Hribar‏@LordReebs

Per [NFL.com] NextGenStats, Todd Gurley faced 8+ defenders in the box just 10.5% of his carries. Down from 25.5% in 2016.

McVay’s offense created more favorable situations dictated by personnel and still 2.1 YPC vs Colts.

Mackeyser wrote:

Beyond that we seem okay

Good for you.

My oldest daughter is near Orlando. She did okay too.

…

Zooey wrote:

And time to throw.

They will score more points this year.

And when teams realize they have to respect the passing game, Gurley may bust out for a 75-yard day.

There’s a report out there, in terms of early “game review watching the all-22” style reports, that in fact IND did NOT play the run. They did not load the box and play run first.

If so that means Gurley and the OL ran against lighter opposition in the box and still couldn’t get er going.

…