The Los Angeles Rams had plenty of rookies making their preseason debut on Saturday versus the Los Angeles Chargers, and one name that fans were anxious to see was Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson. The rookie sixth-round pick had a solid outing in Saturday’s loss and Sean McVay took notice of his effort on the field.
“Exactly what you said. Some of the stuff that made him a Thorpe Award winner, the competitiveness,” McVay said. “He’s a tough competitor that doesn’t have any fear and he’s not afraid to get up and challenge guys. Thought he did a good job in a couple of those situations too of being able to get his eyes back, play the ball true, and had a nice breakup against his former teammate down that sideline on the Chargers side. He’s just got a nice swagger about himself. I was happy for Tre making a couple of those plays tonight.”
Hodges-Tomlinson didn’t wait long to make his presence felt in Saturday’s matchup against the Chargers, breaking up a pass intended for his former teammate Quentin Johnston on the opening drive of the game. The deflection by Hodges-Tomlinson forced the Chargers to punt and he would finish the contest with two tackles.
Due to his lack of size, Hodges-Tomlinson fell to the sixth round of this year’s draft. The Rams took the TCU product with confidence that he could outperform where he was taken in the draft.
Even with Hodges-Tomlinson being a smaller cornerback, he showed in his final two seasons at TCU that he isn’t afraid to get involved in stopping the run, combining for 91 tackles in that span. Hodges-Tomlinson also totaled five interceptions and 22 pass breakups in his last two years of college, and his playmaking ability is something that McVay was happy to see come to fruition in Saturday’s preseason opener.