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Rams defensive line coach Eric Henderson has established a culture within his position group that has yielded a ton of success and production, from Aaron Donald down to Greg Gaines. He and his players have lived by their “DAWG Work” mantra, emphasizing the benefits of working hard and utilizing proper technique and fundamentals.
As accomplished as the Rams look heading into 2022 as the defending Super Bowl champions, Henderson wants to use the offseason to “start completely over,” not using any of last season’s success to assume the Rams will accomplish the same goals this year.
“I’m hoping to utilize this offseason to be able to just start completely over,” Henderson said in a video feature by the Rams. “You never want to assume that guys remembered anything, although for us, we were the last team to be done, which makes your offseason a lot shorter than most teams. You would think that some guys would have remembered some of the things you just did a couple months ago, but you can’t ever assume that, so you want to be able to break down the offseason and completely start from ground zero, assuming that no one knows anything. I don’t expect you to remember anything. My job as a coach is to completely build you back up again, whether that be technique, whether that be playbook. Talk about base fundamentals. All of the things that are important to us having success and playing how we want to play, and then also realtering your attitude toward what we’re trying to get done.”
The defensive line will move forward without Sebastian Joseph-Day in that group, and Von Miller is also gone. But it’s still a strong collection of players up front, with Donald, Gaines and A’Shawn Robinson leading the way.
The D-line was a strength last season, and Henderson hopes that’s the case again in 2022.