There isn’t a team in the NFL with less experience than the Los Angeles Rams. The average number of years of NFL experience for the players on their roster is only 1.78 years, by far the lowest number in the league; the Packers are the next-closest at 2.19 years.
That will change when final roster cuts are made and most of their undrafted rookies are released, but for the next month or so, the coaching staff will be working with a lot of players who are lacking NFL experience.
That’s beginning to show as training camp progresses. After practice on Tuesday, Sean McVay expressed frustration with the way the day went. He wasn’t pleased with the mistakes his players made, nor was he happy about the fatigue he saw from guys on the field.
It started when he was asked about rookie pass rusher Byron Young, who he at first complimented but then said he has “a long way to go” – as does the team as a whole.
“I think he’s doing a good job. Those guys are really young on the edge,” McVay said. “Like I’ve mentioned before, (OLBs coach) Joe Coniglio’s done a really good job with those guys. There’s a lot of stuff going on, there’s a lot of moving parts. You can see the physicality, the athleticism, the turn and run ability, but he’s got a long way to go. Just with this team, we’ve got a real long way to go. Today was not very good overall. I thought we were very sloppy, not sharp on both sides of the football and so if we want to continue to try to do the things that we’re doing and take steps in the right direction, we have to be better than we were today.”
The Rams aren’t the first team to have a sloppy practice, nor is it strictly because they’re a young team. But when players aren’t in the shape they need to be in, or when they’re making the same mistakes repeatedly, that’s when coaches tend to get frustrated.
When McVay was asked about top rookie Steve Avila, he pointed out that he seemed tired in practice. Avila wasn’t the only rookie that McVay noticed that from, either. He wants all of his first-year players in better shape so that when the season begins, they’re ready to play a full 60 minutes and stay on the field throughout the year.
“I thought he’s done good. I thought he got tired today,” McVay said. “I thought we were tired overall, but I do like what Steve has. I’m a big believer in Steve Avila. I think he’s got a lot of ability. I like his mindset and mentality, but like all of these rookies, this is a different deal and we’ve got to really condition and callous ourselves physically and mentally to be able to sustain throughout the course of a regular season and we got to be able to push through on these types of days. The easy thing is to not try to do that, but we can’t afford to do that. But I’m encouraged with Steve and I know he’s going to continue to learn from all of his reps, whether they be good or bad.”
This is the first training camp for the Rams’ rookies, which is much different than what they went through in college. McVay expects a lot out of his players, whether they’re fifth-year pros or undrafted rookies.
And with so many spots on the roster up for grabs, players will have to earn their place on the team this fall. Sloppy play isn’t going to get it done, particularly when the mistakes being made are things like blown coverages that allow big plays.
“When you get into these real game settings, and again, like it’s one of those deals that there could be a lot of good stuff for one side, but if it’s a gimme that you’re giving up, those are things I want us to be better as a team,” he said. “And so, I guess it’s the healthy frustrations of wanting to see just good ball because somebody has to be able to win the down and if everybody’s earning it, that’s what I want to see, but if it’s because we’re making a mistake in terms of our coverage responsibilities or our rush integrity or because we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do on the offensive side of the ball, those are the things that I get frustrated and I felt like that was too consistent of a theme whether it be offensive or defense in different phases and we had a bunch of different situations, but that’s what we want. I want guys to be stressed. I don’t want it to be perfect. I want us to be able to learn from these mistakes and I want to see us be able to mentally strain through some of these longer days, if you will.”
This Rams roster isn’t like ones from years past under McVay. There isn’t the large group of established veterans leading the team. It’s Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, Rob Havenstein and Tyler Higbee, and then it’s a large group of unproven players – most of whom are still on their rookie contracts.
That’s caused the coaching staff to take a different approach to practice, leading to more fundamentally teaching and less installation of the offense and defense. Based on McVay’s comments, it seems they’re going to take it slow and focus on the basics before getting too deep into the playbook and concepts.
“There’s going to be a lot of mistakes, it’s the repetitive ones. It’s when we get a little bit tired and you’re not really thinking and it’s stuff that we’ve done over and over again. We’re still adding some stuff, but we still try to be aware as coaches, like okay we can hold off on some of the latter parts of our install and let’s just focus on the fundamentals, the techniques, and the little details. And I want us to be able to stress each other on both sides of the football, but it’s the good execution that I want to see. And again, that wasn’t consistent enough. I have total understanding of some of the patience and the tolerance that’ll be necessary, but I also have seen enough good things from a lot of these guys that I know that we can be better than that and that’s what I expect when we’re back out here practicing in a couple days.”
The Rams have more than a month until they hit the field for their first regular-season game, but McVay wants to see constant improvement from his group, not repeated mistakes and mental lapses.
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