Aaron Donald: “There are a lot of things I can clean up and fix.”

Myles Simmons

https://www.therams.com/news/aaron-donald-there-are-a-lot-of-things-i-can-clean-up-and-fix

Defensive tackle Aaron Donald is the kind of self-motivated player coaches must love.

This is a man coming off earning his second-consecutive AP Defensive Player of the Year award, having recorded a single-season franchise record 20.5 sacks in 2018. He also signed a lucrative six-year contract extension last August, keeping him with Los Angeles through the 2024 season.

But none of that has appeared to diminish Donald’s motivation, as he enters the sixth year of his already storied career.

He’s been participating in OTAs for the first time since 2016 — back before he remained absent from two straight offseason programs as his representation and the organization negotiated the extension. And he’s enjoying being at the facility every day this time of year, saying he thinks it’s important.

“I think you need to be here with the guys, and just build that relationship — just learning each other, being around each other, pushing each other,” Donald said on Tuesday. “So this is a big party that I definitely did miss, and [I’m] happy I’m here now working with these guys.”

“[J]ust having him here in this building, and what a breath of fresh air it is just to see how he constantly works,” head coach Sean McVay said. “When you’ve got a guy that’s the reigning two-time Defensive Player of the Year and is motivated to get better and better, never lets the complacency set in, it’s just really easy just to say, ‘That’s what it looks like.’ And he’s kind of the epitome of what it looks like right now, and we’re certainly glad to have him around.”

Because there’s no opponent, this is a time of self-improvement — one of Donald’s specialties. After fellow D-lineman Michael Brockers noted this last week, Donald said himself that he’s been encouraging his position mates to get in extra workouts throughout the offseason program.

More than that, though, Donald has enjoyed the tutelage he’s received from new defensive line coach Eric Henderson — better known around the facility as “coach Henny.” And that’s because, just as Donald often says, Henderson feels like there’s a lot Donald can improve upon as a player.

“I’ve been loving coach ‘Henny,’ that’s one of the main parts why I want to be here — to work with the guys, and also work with him,” Donald said. “He’s working a lot of different drills that I feel like can help me get better, improve my game. He’s pushing me. Like I said, he broke down stuff on me, showed me things that I need to correct in my game.

“So having him here, having him coach me with the different drills we’re out there doing, things that I needed to work on, that I needed to improve — I’m just excited to keep working with him.”

It almost seems odd to hear Donald say there’s really that much he can improve after the season he just had. But if there’s anyone who can keep that motivation to not just stay great, but be better in 2019 — it’s A.D.

Gun-toting ‘Kampground’ employee threatens Black couple spending a day in the park

link: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/05/gun-toting-kampground-employee-threatens-black-couple-spending-a-day-in-the-park/?fbclid=IwAR1tKf31vyG_JILEGe24gk6jnEVoyCWFfl72ZiC_7MKdd339RfaAhnnpVFQ

Add “camping while Black” to the long list of things white people find objectionable when they see it.

An employee at the Kampgrounds of America (KOA) took issue with a Mississippi couple walking through a park with their dog Sunday, The Clarion-Ledger reported.

“All you had to do is tell us you have to have a reservation and we would have left,” said the woman filming the video. “You didn’t have to pull a gun.”

The gun-toting campground employee slowly put her handgun back into her pocket.

“Well I’m just telling you — you need to leave because it’s under private ownership,” she said. “You can’t be out here.”

The Black couple tried to explain to her why they didn’t think they needed a reservation to use the Oktibbeha County Lake, but the woman seemed disinterested.

Kampgrounds of America (KOA) is the world’s largest company with privately held campground.

“KOA Inc. is aware of the situation that occurred Sunday, May 26th at the KOA franchise in Starkville, Mississippi,” the company said in a statement. “KOA is currently looking into the matter and reaching out to all of the parties involved. Kampgrounds of America prides itself on providing a welcoming, safe environment for everyone to enjoy the outdoors.”

Donald on new DL coach Henderson (who has been getting a lot of praise): “He’s pushing me, he broke down stuff for me [on film] I need to correct in my game, so, having him here going through drills on stuff I actually needed to work on and improve, I’m just excited to keep working with him. It’s a lot of things, I won’t tell you my weaknesses, but there’s a lot of things I have to keep working on.”

Threadin’ the needle.@JaredGoff16 | @RobertWoods pic.twitter.com/GvUQUpWEkk

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) May 28, 2019

Aaron Donald talks up Greg Gaines: ‘Every day he’s getting better’

Aaron Donald talks up Greg Gaines: 'Every day he's getting better'

Aaron Donald is participating in OTAs for the first time in the Sean McVay era. The Los Angeles Rams star stayed away from the voluntary practices the past two seasons as he held out for a new contract, but now that he’s landed his record deal, he’s back in the fold for his first full offseason since 2016.

Speaking to the media after practice Tuesday, Donald said he’s happy to be back working with his teammates instead of training solely on his own.

“Good to be here with the guys, grinding with the guys, and just been working. It’s been good,” he said.

Donald was then asked about the differences between the team before and after McVay took over. “Well that’s obvious: We’ve been winning,” Donald said with a smile. Donald said McVay changed “the mindset, the culture around here. When you’ve got a coach like McVay that nonstop his mindset is to be the best at what he does, and it just trickles down to us and everybody got that same mindset,” he explained.

Donald was also asked about rookie defensive tackle Greg Gaines, who the Rams have indicated they plan on starting next to Donald.

“He’s good, good player. One of the guys that asks a lot of questions and wants to know things, that’s good. He’s out there working, grinding, and you can see it on film, every day he’s been getting better.”

Gaines had said during his press conference a couple of weeks back that he was starstruck by the veteran, and Donald seems open to taking him under his wing.

“If any guy, anybody got a question they need to ask, if they just want to pick my brain, I’m always [here]. They ask me stuff, I’m giving them feedback, or they want me to watch film and tell them something I see that they need to improve, I try to do that as best as I can,” he said. “So just trying to lead by example and if the young guys need questions answered or just need me to help them work on something, I’m here and they know that.”

Donald taking on such a strong leadership role is a great sign for the team and the locker room. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year also talked about his new positional coach, defensive line coach Eric Henderson, and things seem to be going well.

“I’ve been loving coach thus far, that’s one of the main [reasons] why I wanted to be here, to work with the guys and also work with him. He’s working a lot of different drills that I feel like can help me get better, help me improve my game. He’s pushing me. Like I said, he broke down stuff with me and showed me things I need to correct in my game,” Donald said.

“Having him here, having him coach me, with the different drills he’s got us out there doing, things that I actually needed to work on that I needed to improve, I’m just excited to keep working with him,” he continued.

The new pairing is clearly working so far, and it sounds like the Rams made a nice hire. There’s a long way to go, but with a full offseason under his belt, there’s no reason to think Donald won’t be able to win his third straight DPOY award.

McVay: Todd Gurley hasn’t done any on-field work this offseason

McVay: Todd Gurley hasn't done any on-field work this offseason

Every Los Angeles Rams fan has kept a close eye on Todd Gurley throughout the offseason as he recovers from a knee injury that sidelined him toward the end of the 2018 season. The Rams have him on a “really specific” training program, which includes working out with the team, as well as individually with his own trainer.

Gurley hasn’t been in attendance for any of the team’s organized team activities yet, but he has participated in the offseason program behind the scenes. What he hasn’t done is get on the field and practice with the team.

Sean McVay said as much after Tuesday’s practice, but did make it clear that Gurley is “on a great plan.”

Andrew Siciliano@AndrewSiciliano
Sean McVay says Todd Gurley hasn’t been doing any work on the field during team drills at OTAs, but has been a consistent participant in the offseason program.
“We’ve got him on a great plan.”

McVay said Gurley has been in Thousand Oaks “pretty much every single day,” but his work has been away from the field. He’s been working out consistently during the offseason training program.

“We’ve been really pleased with Todd. He’s done some different things with Travelle Gaines and some of those trainers, but then he’s also been here consistently, pretty much every single day of the week and he’s been an active participant following the program that we’ve implemented with him,” McVay said.

Until Gurley gets on the field for practice, there will be questions about his health and whether he’ll be 100% for next season.

max

MATT WALDMAN ON GURLEY

Waldman said recently, in defending Goff in the SB, that Gurley wasn’t the same the rest of the year after he got hurt in the Chiefs game.

Gurley got hurt initially in Oakland, then something happened again to him against the Chiefs (some say it was his ankle but who knows), then he was really messed up against the Eagles.

Waldman said Gurley was used a lot as a decoy after the Chiefs game.

It was so easy for him to yell, “he’s got a gun!” So he could kill him SMH! I wouldn’t shut my car off either that’s just an excuse so they can say you were reaching for something! #StayWoke pic.twitter.com/99E6zyBDUV

— Reggie Bush (@ReggieBush) May 28, 2019

==

Arkansas Cop Pulls Gun on Man Recording, Claiming he had Seen an Imaginary Gun

https://newsmaven.io/pinacnews/cops-gone-rogue/arkansas-cop-pulls-gun-on-man-recording-claiming-he-had-seen-an-imaginary-gun-WtJ7nFP81EOFru6aCUAJRA/

An Arkansas man came close to losing his life Sunday when a cop pulled a gun on him, accusing him of holding a gun as the man sat inside his car with his hands extended out the window.

“Shut the car off!” the Helena-West Helena cop ordered, keeping his gun pointed at the man.

“He’s got a gun!” the cop yells to his fellow cops.

“Where?” Edrick Truitt asks, keeping his hands extended out the window.

“Gun! Shut the car off!” the cop says.

“Where? Where? My hands are in the air,” Truitt responds, refusing to shut his car off because that would require him to bring his hands back into the car where the cop has already imagined seeing a gun.

Truitt did have a gun in the back seat but it was legal and out-of-reach and it was not visible to the cop. And Truitt had not done anything to give the cop probable cause that he was armed and dangerous.

It appears as if Truitt was part of a group of black people hanging out in the parking lot of a convenience store/gas station at 3 a.m. Sunday morning when police arrived and ordered them to disperse.

Truitt says he was trying to leave when another car blocked him in, which the cop took as a deliberate refusal to follow his orders.

Helena-West Helena police say they will release body cam footage to show what “truly transpired” as News Channel 3 phrases it.

‘It was L.A. or nothing’: How Eric Weddle started over with Rams

Dan Pompei

https://theathletic.com/985784/2019/05/28/it-was-l-a-or-nothing-how-eric-weddle-started-over-with-rams/

It’s early March in San Diego, where Eric Weddle calls home. With sweat still trickling down his forehead after a game of basketball at a local gym, Weddle steps up into his white Shelby F-150 truck with the thick black stripes down the middle of the hood.

The truck has 750 horsepower and moves like a Corvette, but is bigger than a walk-in closet. When he opens it up on the freeway, it sounds a little like a dentist’s drill. He changed the chrome to black, bought oversized wheels and rims and lifted it an inch-and-a-half.

He’s never spent much of his money on playthings, but in January he earned a $1 million bonus because he made the Pro Bowl and his team made the playoffs. He thought he and his family deserved something special.

It is a symbol for all Weddle has achieved and conquered.

Before he can put the truck in drive, he gets a phone call. On the caller ID: Eric DeCosta.

The Ravens general manager probably wants to discuss Weddle’s future with the team, Weddle thinks. Weddle was closer to DeCosta than he had been with any team executive in his NFL career. They often talked about player evaluations, team building and life.

“Hey Eric,” Weddle says.

“How have you been?” DeCosta says.

They small-talk about the scouting combine. Weddle asks about players there who caught DeCosta’s eye.

And then DeCosta’s tone changes.

“Eric, I want to tell you how much I love you,” he says. “You’ve done so much for this organization. You changed this place for the better. This is probably one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to do because of the respect I have for you. But we’re going to have to release you.”

This is a thunderbolt. For the first time in Weddle’s life, he is being cut.

The call ends, and Weddle sits there in his imposing truck for a minute, staring straight ahead. He thinks about the past three years in Baltimore — what the Ravens accomplished, faces of teammates, coaches and people in the organization, the city and the fans, and how his career was revitalized there.

He feels emotional. He calls his wife, Chanel, with the news.

“OK, so you’re going to retire, right?” she says, more excited than sad. His aching joints — neck, shoulder, back, hips, knees and toes — would say the same if they could talk.

And there is more to it than that.

The Weddles’ dream house had been sitting empty in San Diego. Before Weddle was released, he and Chanel decided it was time for her and their four children to settle down in Southern California. Their oldest, Brooklyn, is entering middle school in the fall. So if Eric were to play in 2019, he would be separated from his family for the first time in his career.

When the slideshow of his life plays in his mind, Weddle sees plenty of interceptions, but not enough Christmas mornings with his kids. There were four Christmases spent on the road that he can never get back. School plays, Halloweens, basketball games and dance recitals, too.

Their daughter, Silver, has a birthday in August — she will be 8 years old this year. Her father never has been there to help blow out the candles. Every time she innocently brings it up, it feels like another arrow in his back.

“When,” he asks himself, “is enough, enough?”

He knows if he plays again, football will get everything. Like it always has. Or maybe even more than ever. It’s the way he is and the only way he can be.

So much to think about. A new team. A new city. A new coaching staff. A new group of teammates. A new defensive system.

Will he be wanted? Will he want them?

If 34-year old Eric Weddle plays a 13th NFL season, it will almost be like he’s a rookie once again.

A deep free-agent safety class and a $7.5 million cap savings led to the Ravens releasing Weddle. This was the second time in his career he had been untethered, as he was a free agent in 2016 after nine years with the Chargers. But there was significantly more interest in 34-year-old Weddle than there had been in 31-year-old Weddle.

Being in demand — he said 15 teams expressed some degree of interest — stoked the fire in Weddle. He was most intrigued by the Bears, Bucs, Chiefs, Rams and Titans and planned on visiting all five.

It took a while for Chanel to accept what was happening. The thought of not having him around would leave her in tears. But she would come around and support the idea because she saw his excitement. Then she’d have second thoughts.

Weddle scheduled his visits, with the Rams first. No team gave him a better chance to play on a Super Bowl winner. His childhood home was just Southeast of Los Angeles in Rancho Cucamonga. His father was a Rams fan who was so upset when the team moved to St. Louis that he set his Rams gear on fire.

The night before Weddle’s visit, he was restless, still somewhat conflicted. Instead of sleeping, he deliberated. In the morning, he told Chanel if he didn’t reach an agreement with the Rams, he would retire. The only other person he told was his agent David Canter.

“It was L.A. or nothing,” he says.

Upon arriving at the Rams’ facility in Thousand Oaks, he met head coach Sean McVay. They watched tape. They talked about why Weddle changed calls on some plays. McVay wanted to know what Weddle would call against some of the Rams’ looks. They talked about offensive ideology and defensive countermoves.

“Hours went by, but it felt like 20 minutes,” Weddle says.

The next morning, McVay and Weddle talked for another three hours. This time, the conversation expanded to team culture, respect for the game and family. They watched plays from early in Weddle’s career. They might as well have been watching home movies from his childhood because to McVay, they opened up a window into the man.

“We were in alignment with our values and the things we want to epitomize as an organization on a day-to-day basis,” McVay says. “Loves football, loves people. We had an immediate connection, a good rapport, a like-mindedness.”

They are from different worlds — McVay is from quarterbackland; Weddle from the other side of the wall. But you couldn’t tell it from the way they related.

“I felt like I was talking to myself,” Weddle says. “We think so much alike. It’s wild. His humility is what drew me most to him, even with all the success he’s had, he knows nobody has all the answers.”

He was convinced he belonged on the Rams. He agreed to a two-year, $10.5 million deal, knowing it almost certainly will be the last NFL contract he signs.

He was headed back to San Diego for five days but was eager to get started on learning the Rams defense. He eyed McVay’s oversized iPad, which has much more game tape than players’ iPads.

Weddle: “The only thing that matters at this point is I need an iPad.”

McVay: “I love you for that. Take mine.”

McVay gave him his password, and by the time Weddle returned the iPad the next week and was issued his own, he already had a good feel for the Rams defense.

McVay has attended the secondary meetings every day during OTAs, trying to learn the defense better. He asks Weddle what tendencies he expects based on a formation or a split.

And during the daily allotted four-hour work period, Weddle also sits in on quarterback talks with McVay, quarterback Jared Goff and others. “He can communicate with Jared what he’s seeing from his vantage point,” McVay says. “And when it comes from a teammate, especially a guy who has done it for a while, it resonates.”

The hope is Goff becomes a better quarterback from working with Weddle. McVay is certain he’s already become a better coach. “I’ve definitely learned from him, and I’m sure I will continue to,” he says.

On the campus of Cal-Lutheran in Thousand Oaks is a group of trailers that fit together like giant Lego blocks. This is the temporary training facility of the Rams.

It is a far cry from the Ravens’ stately Under Armour Performance Center, commonly known as “The Castle.”

Several weeks into his tenure as a Ram, Weddle still is getting lost in the trailer maze. “You get inside and there are no windows,” he says. “Which way do I go? Which way is outside? I know how to get out, but to get through, to get to the weight room, you can end up in the quarterbacks’ room. You’ll walk through the middle section of the facility and you just walked through Coach McVay’s office.”

Weddle is staying at a hotel near the facility that’s costing him more than $200 a night. He has a driver take him from his San Diego-area home to Thousand Oaks on Sunday night, and then back again Thursday afternoon. It costs $800 round trip, not including tips. Considering he’s getting paid $120 a day for OTAs, the offseason is a losing proposition financially.

But he knows the relationships and trust he is building have a value well beyond his costs.

It is difficult being away from his family, and it will be all season. He sees a ray of light though.

“I look at it as I’m going to reach limits I’ve never been able to reach because nothing’s holding me back,” he says. “It sounds selfish, but I don’t mean it that way. It’s just I don’t have anything to go home to. I can spend as much time as I want at the facility. I can do as much work as I want, study as much film as I want, rehab. Before I’d have to get in early and stay late, but I had to go home. Kids need their dad. Now, it’s a different dynamic. And that part of it is exciting.”

During the season, his family will be occupied Monday through Saturday afternoon with school, sports and activities. The plan for home games is for Chanel to drive the kids to the team hotel in Los Angeles on Saturdays, after their son Gaige plays his football game. And maybe Eric can steal a couple days in San Diego early in the week from time to time if McVay gives him a little leeway.

The Rams do some things differently. To improve concentration, players try to catch passes wearing Senaptec Strobe Glasses that flicker between clear and opaque, and distract with blinking lights.

The D2 vision board from Dynavision is about 4 feet by 4 feet with 50 or so small buttons on it. The object is for athletes to improve reaction time by hitting as many buttons as possible in a minute. The first time Weddle did it, he hit 64 buttons. The third time, he was up to 97.

He is embracing the technology.

He has been less enthusiastic about how the team monitors players’ “loads” through Zebra Technology radio frequency identification devices. The idea is to get players to back off when it’s indicated that their body is overtaxed.

“If something is bothering me, I just keep going,” Weddle says. “I’m old school. I love to work out, and I do it every day. I’ve been doing it my whole career and it works for me. They are learning that.”

The way the Rams lift weights is different too, with an emphasis on explosive movements. For instance, when players incline press, a wire attached to the bar monitors the speed of the movement. Weddle is giving it a chance.

Weddle also is adjusting to a new defensive scheme. Wade Phillips will be Weddle’s seventh defensive coordinator. “I played every 3-4 you can think of, 4-3, over, under fronts,” he says. “Multiple defenses, blitz packages, I’ve done them all.”

Phillips was the defensive coordinator with the Chargers in 2006, the year before Weddle went to San Diego. Weddle’s first defensive coordinator in the NFL was Ted Cottrell, a Phillips’ disciple who maintained most of Phillips’ philosophy and playbook. For his entire run with the Chargers, the team didn’t veer far from Phillips’ defense.

So when Weddle went to Baltimore in 2016, he had to retrain his brain to absorb the scheme implemented by Dean Pees. There were times, in fact, with the Ravens when Weddle would mistakenly make a call from the Chargers’ playbook.

Now he’s going back to the language and same basic concepts that he used early in his career. From the recesses of his mind, the base calls, sub packages, rotations and checks are coming back to him.

At this point, Weddle says he is confident he could be ready to play a game in the Rams’ system in a few days. Football strategy always has come easy to him, in part because he thinks about it a lot. He says when a defense is installed in a meeting, he might go over it in his head 50 times. McVay has told him if most players are at a Level 1 in terms of comprehension, Weddle is at a Level 5.

Ravens coaches recognized as much — John Harbaugh told Weddle he’d like to hire him as a coach when he retires — and gave him liberal freedom to adjust defensive calls based on presnap looks.

There is a feeling-out process between Weddle and his Rams coaches to determine what he should and should not be doing in terms of adjustments. The Rams have not had a safety like him who can play the strategy game at a grand-master level.

“The best thing about Eric is he knows the intent of the calls and what we’re trying to get done,” McVay says. “He’ll have the luxury of being able to disguise and marry that with some of the other calls that we want to utilize in that game plan. And he absolutely will, with some of our other guys, have the ability to make certain checks based on what an offense presents in a lot of the same ways he did with Baltimore.”

Weddle’s assignments aren’t likely to be significantly different from what they were with the Ravens. The Rams will ask him to play in the post, and in quarters and halves. He will roll coverage, blitz and play in the box. Having a role with varied responsibilities is ideal for him because it gives him more options to defeat quarterbacks mentally.

For most of the 2018 season, Weddle was the Ravens defender who wore the orange earpiece that enabled him to hear the defensive play call from his coach. He enjoyed the responsibility and was good at it.

The earpiece goes to the middle linebacker on most teams, and last season middle linebacker Cory Littleton wore it for the Rams. He wore it well, but McVay says there is a chance Weddle will get it this season. The decision has yet to be made.

For now, Weddle doesn’t want to be overbearing. He got into a back and forth with the assistant coaches during a recent walkthrough over a check that was made that he felt was unnecessary. But mostly, he bites his tongue.

“I have to remember I’m coming into this place, this system and I need to adapt and work myself into them, not the other way around,” he says. “It’s been a little bit of a challenge to not push certain ideas onto the defense and let it play itself out.”

Patience comes easier at 34 than it ever could at 24.

A new kid on the block feels many eyes upon him. He listens before he speaks. He tries, usually a little awkwardly, to find his place without infringing on someone else’s.

Weddle is the new kid on the block.

He has six Pro Bowl appearances — more than anyone on the roster. Harbaugh will tell you Weddle established a new culture in Baltimore.

Weddle earned the right to pull up to the Rams’ facility every day in that magnificent Shelby F-150. But in his world, nobody earns respect in the parking lot. And the reality is he isn’t acting much different than when he was driving a Honda Accord his first few years in the league.

When Weddle walked in the door for the first OTA, the Rams were not his team. They were Andrew Whitworth’s team. They were Michael Brockers’ team and Aaron Donald’s team. Goff’s team, Todd Gurley’s team, Brandin Cooks’ team.

He had known Aqib Talib and Whitworth from Pro Bowls. He also had been with linebackers coach Joe Barry in San Diego. He helped recruit free agent Clay Matthews, another Pro Bowl acquaintance. But he didn’t have any close friends on the team.

When his workday ends, Weddle heads to Los Robles Greens and hits golf balls at the driving range. Alone.

Or he goes to see a movie like “Hellboy”. Alone.

Or he goes back to his hotel room and watches “Game of Thrones” on his iPad. Alone.

“It’s tough because you can see certain guys are already close with each other,” he says after he sends a little white ball into the blue, lonely California sky with his 8-iron at Los Robles. “You don’t want to overstep your boundaries and push yourself on guys.”

For most of his career, he has been the guy breaking down the huddle, and the guy giving pep talks. Not here, not yet anyway.

“I don’t have the right,” he says.

The right is earned in an unlit room with a big screen on the wall. The right is earned to the sounds of clanging 45-pound plates, of large dumbbells bouncing off rubber tiles, and of hooting, grunting young men full of testosterone. The right is earned on long, sweltering summer days when legs feel heavy, tempers are short and home seems far away.

With the Ravens, Weddle would skip a practice when he was feeling sore. For now, he isn’t comfortable taking any days off from practice.

“I have to show these boys every day that I can be as good or better than anyone on the field at 34 years old, that I deserve this job because I’m outplaying everybody,” he says. “Even if I’m dog tired and sore, and know I won’t be at my best, I’m going to be out there to try to earn the respect of my teammates.”

His most important order of business is to develop trust with the men he shares a meeting room with — especially Talib, Marcus Peters, John Johnson and Nickell Robey-Coleman.

It’s important the other defensive backs who will be playing a lot become accustomed to how Weddle communicates on the field. It’s also important that they learn each other’s tendencies. He wants the corners and safeties to know if he tells them to do something outside of the scheme, he will have their backs.

Even before Weddle became a Ram, there was a mutual respect between him and Talib. It’s been enhanced by their work together.

During a recent install meeting, Weddle questioned a coverage. He took the words from Talib’s lips. “Immediately, Eric and I saw it the same way,” Talib says. “It was crazy. That tells me we look at the game the same way.”

A bond is forming with Peters quickly. “With his personality and his smile, you gravitate towards him,” Weddle says. “He’s really smart within the game. He and I are going to click, I can already tell.”

Weddle has less in common with many of the men with whom he shares a logo.

When Weddle and a couple of older teammates brought up some of their favorite rappers from the ’90s, the younger guys responded with blank stares. When Weddle introduced himself to Littleton, the middle linebacker told Weddle he was one of his biggest fans when he was growing up in San Diego.

“I’m at a different point in my life compared with a lot of these guys,” Weddle says. “It’s a challenge to earn their trust and friendship.”

Despite differences, Weddle embraces his young teammates. He shows up early, at 6:45, to watch tape and tutor a group of them.

Shortly after the Rams selected safety Taylor Rapp with their first draft pick, Weddle texted him, telling him he was happy to have him. Rapp texted back, telling Weddle that he looks up to him, wants to be like him and hopes to learn from him.

“I’m going to try to give him an edge in any way I can and make a difference in his career,” Weddle says. “That’s where I’m at in my career. I’m not worried about him taking my job. If he’s better than me, then he should be playing. But that’s not going to happen.”

Part of Weddle’s value to the Rams is he can lift those around him. It’s what he says, and it’s also how he cares, the way he works and the energy he creates.

“He’s a breath of fresh air in our building every single day, and his enthusiasm for football is contagious,” McVay says. “It rubs off on guys. He’s one of the few guys I’ve met who might like football more than me, which is a good thing.”

The Rams are a breath of fresh air to him as well.

The famous beard, which nearly extended to his sternum, is gone. It had been a part of Weddle, on and off, for about seven years. Brushing it three or four times a day, and picking out the remains of meals, got old. Now he has a close-cropped beard, and he gets more kisses from Chanel.

New look, new man, new team.

After not knowing if he had reached the end, Weddle still is living his childhood dream and experiencing new challenges.

“I’m invigorated,” he says. “This is exciting. I love the challenge of trying to prove myself and be a part of something special, to add to it, and to blend in my personality with this team.”

In some ways, Eric Weddle is finishing his career just the way he started it.

OTAs a time of steady improvement for Robert Woods

https://www.therams.com/news/otas-a-time-of-steady-improvement-for-robert-woods

Last season was a career year for wide receiver Robert Woods.

Not that anyone in L.A. was really knocking his talent before — but in 2018, No. 17 shattered his career highs in receptions (86) and yards receiving (1,219), also setting a career high with six receiving touchdowns. Plus, he showed his versatility within head coach Sean McVay’s offense, taking 19 carries for 157 yards and a touchdown — including a 56-yard rush that helped propel the Rams to victory in Seattle during Week 5.

So what’s Woods working on during the offseason program for an encore?

“Just finding something from film — whether it’s breaking tackles, attacking the ball, [being] more physical,” Woods told therams.com. “Finding ways to make guys miss out here without pads — just finding a way to juke a guy. Just for me, I just try to challenge the yards after catch. It’s kind of like flag [football] out here right now, so if I can avoid being touched, then I can avoid being tackles.”

When it comes to the quarterbacks who have thrown passes to Woods over the course of his career, there’s been a decent amount of instability. From E.J. Manuel, to Kyle Orton, to Tyrod Taylor in Buffalo — this will be the first time for Woods as a pro that he’ll have the same staring quarterback for a third consecutive season.

Woods and signal-caller Jared Goff have already established solid chemistry, but how can they improve it?

“Just keep it going, really. Just improve on the little things that we were missing,” Woods said. “But other than that, stay consistent, keep doing what got us to this point, keep working. Just precision and communicating in the meeting rooms, out here on the field — whether it’s extra throws, or pre-practice — so we just always stay on the same page.”

As for the offense as a whole, Woods said he can see how McVay has continued to add elements to an already-complex offense to prevent the Rams from being stagnant in 2019.

“He’s still finding ways to find more cuts, find more routes, more concepts to improve and make this offense more unstoppable,” Woods said of McVay.

Can Kyler Murray continue legendary winning ways with Cardinals?

http://www.espn.com/blog/arizona-cardinals/post/_/id/31665/kyler-murrays-legendary-winning-ways-will-be-challenged-in-arizona

TEMPE, Ariz. — Kyler Murray’s high school résumé is a thing of football lore in Texas.

Forty-two wins. No losses. Three straight state championships. Three championship game MVPs. Gatorade Player of the Year.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Tom Westerberg, Murray’s coach at Allen High School. “We played at the highest classification in the state of Texas, and to know that we ran the table three times with him, it’s unbelievable.”

Unbelievable? Yes. Incredible? Yes. New? No.

Murray, the quarterback taken No. 1 overall in the NFL draft last month by the Arizona Cardinals, didn’t start winning when he transferred to Allen before his sophomore year. By then, he’d been doing it for years. All he has ever done is win, and he has done it at every level. Now he joins a Cardinals team that finished 3-13 last season and has reached the playoffs just four times this millennium.

Special from the start

Kyle Nelson was on the board of the Lewisville Football Association in 2002 when a friend told him he had to watch one of the flag football players in the 5-6 age group. Nelson, understandably, wasn’t interested.

Then he watched Murray — as a 5-year-old — score five touchdowns in the first half.

“I was like, ‘Wow, this kid is pretty special,'” said Nelson, now the league president. “I just remember watching him just pretty much dominate that game as a 5-year-old.”

Murray dominated the Lewisville Football Association for the next seven years, losing just one game, as Nelson recalls, and winning six league titles out of a possible seven. And Murray did it often by playing against older players. Because of his August birthday, Murray was always among the youngest kids in his age group.

Nelson saw firsthand how tough it was to beat Murray: He coached the team that gave Murray what’s believed to be his lone youth football loss, in 2006, when Murray was 9.

“It was a pretty big deal when that happened,” Nelson said. “I’ve been doing this 19, 20 years now. He’s the best youth football player I’ve seen. Hands down.”

By the time Murray finally took the field at Huffines Middle School, his reputation preceded him. Dick Olin, then the head coach at Lewisville, installed a watered-down version of the varsity’s scheme, which was essentially the Air Raid, for Murray to run.

It didn’t take long for Murray to pick up the offense, said Heath Naragon, his eighth-grade coach at Huffines, so he’d go back to Olin and get another part of the playbook to install. Murray would absorb it and Naragon would go back to Olin. It got to the point where Murray’s eighth-grade team was running an offense more complex than the junior varsity but not quite as complicated as the varsity.

“He was very knowledgeable,” Naragon said. “I’ve been doing this, I don’t know, 11 years now and I’ve never seen anybody like that.”

It translated into sheer dominance on the field. Huffines lost once that season, in the semifinals of the middle school playoffs — because Murray missed the game with a shoulder injury.

What stood out to Naragon beyond Murray’s arm strength, which he believed was better than 99 percent of Texas high school quarterbacks as a seventh-grader, was Murray’s poise.

“He doesn’t get rattled,” Naragon said. “Nothing really affects him.”

The best from Texas?

And as good as Murray was in eighth grade, he was better in ninth. He began showing an advanced understanding of Olin’s pass-happy scheme after having been in it for a year, and as a ninth-grader he started taking ownership of it.

Sonny Dack, the varsity running-backs coach, helped Olin and Naragon coach the freshman team. He saw Murray begin holding his teammates accountable, whether it was the offensive line, the running backs or the wide receivers. He’d let the receivers know if their routes weren’t crisp enough or work to figure out why they dropped a pass. Murray had an encouraging nature when getting on his teammates. He began running parts of the offense at the line of scrimmage. He’d audible in and out of plays.

“He knew what everybody was supposed to be doing and he expected him to do it perfect,” Dack said. “He delivered and then some once he got to the ninth grade.”

No one could figure out a way to stop him, Olin said. And Murray’s height never mattered.

“Everybody told me, you’re too small,” said Murray, who today is listed at 5-foot-10. “You just learn to deal with it.”

Olin, who remains close with Murray — he eventually drove him to a visit at Texas Tech, where Kliff Kingsbury was coaching — was fired after the 2011-12 school year. Murray transferred to Allen High School, where the rest, as they say, is history. Quite literally.

By the end of high school, Murray firmly established himself as the front-runner to be named the best high school quarterback Texas has ever seen.

Murray dominated his competition, throwing for 10,386 yards and 117 touchdowns while running for 4,129 yards and 69 touchdowns. His senior year showing of 4,713 yards and 54 touchdowns earned him the prestigious five-star rating by every major recruiting service.

“I had never seen anybody like him,” Olin said. “Kyler was the best I’d ever been around and I was around some really good ones.”

When he finally got his chance in college, he picked up right where he had left off. Murray went 12-2 in 2018, his only season starting at Oklahoma, and won the Heisman Trophy after passing for 4,361 yards with 42 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 1,001 yards and 12 more TDs.

The next test

Murray enters the NFL with plenty of accolades but a difficult test ahead. Arizona hasn’t gone to the playoffs since 2015, which was also the last time it had a winning record. Murray will be charged with resurrecting an offense that was one of the worst in the league last season.

Murray’s legend as a high school player is known by some in his new organization. Fellow rookie wide receiver Hakeem Butler, who went to high school in Houston, had heard about the kid who accounted for something like 25 touchdowns in his first four games.

“I was like, ‘Nah, this kid ain’t human,'” Butler said.

Even Kingsbury, who starred at New Braunfels High School outside San Antonio and is a member of the Texas High School Football Hall of Fame, couldn’t explain what it was like to be a high school star of Murray’s caliber in Texas.

“I can’t. I’ve never seen one — that big of a star,” Kingsbury said. “He was the best player arguably to ever come through the state. When you talk about [42-0] and all the records he broke and things of that nature, I have no idea what it feels like.

Zooey wrote:

Who are the Cardinals again?

I thought that was college ball. Stanford, maybe. Or Kentucky.

Well it is. A rookie head coach right outta college with his 1st round draft pick college qb, who is (to paint a rough sketch) kind of a combination of Russell Wilson and a young Warren Moon.

No CB in this past draft class allowed a lower completion percentage on targets than Rams CB David Long pic.twitter.com/YouD7JmRAx

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) May 27, 2019