Malcolm Brown is only 27 years old, but he’s viewed as the elder in the Rams’ running back room. That’s because the other backs on the roster are all 23 or younger and have no more than one year of NFL experience.
Brown is now viewed as the leader of the group with Todd Gurley gone, and it’s a role he’s embracing.
“Yeah, I mean it’s been easy to fall into that role. I knew right when left, I would probably play a bigger role. It’s easy in that running back room because we all want to learn and we all want to get better,” he said via conference call Monday. “So, there is nothing drastic that’s happened or anything like that. But, like I said, throughout training camp, we’ll see how we’ll fall into our roles and everything like that. But, everybody in that room wants to learn and wants to get better and we play off of each other. It makes it so much easier.”
Brown isn’t that much older than his fellow running backs on the team, but he does have at least three more years of experience on all of them. Apparently, Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, John Kelly and Xavier Jones all let Brown know just how much older he is, frequently ribbing him about his age.
Brown couldn’t think of anything specific that represents the age gap, but he’s gotten an earful from his running mates.
“Man, I don’t know if I can think of any examples right off the bat. But, I definitely know what you’re talking about. Definitely,” he said. “They always make jokes that I’m the old head in the room and stuff like that. They remind me on the daily, for sure. I can’t sit here and think of an exact example. But, I definitely feel exactly what you’re talking about and they’re going to remind me all the time.”
Much of the talk surrounding the running back position has centered on Akers and Henderson. They’re the duo that has fans excited about the future, even though neither of them has been a key contributor like Brown has in the past.
He doesn’t yet know what his role is going to be on offense this season, but he’ll be in the mix for the starting job with Akers and Henderson. That battle will be settled in training camp and early in the season when things get back up to full speed.
“I believe we’ll really see once we strap the pads on and get training camp rolling and things like that we’ll kind of see how things play out,” he said. “I know myself and my mind, what I have for myself in that running back room being the oldest guy, is to do my best to bring these young guys along. I know I’ve been in this offense longer than anybody and then with the great addition that we have with Coach Thomas Brown, just to be an extra set of eyes, be an extra example for these young guys to play off of because, like I said, obviously I’ve been in it longer than anybody in the room.”