It turns out we won’t have to wait until Sept. 13 to see the Rams on the field at SoFi Stadium. Sean McVay previously said the team would hold a couple of scrimmages at their new home, and on Wednesday, he set the dates for those two games: Aug. 22 and 29.
While they won’t be replacements for preseason games, it’ll allow the team to be more competitive and also get a feel for the stadium.
“The first scrimmage we’ll have, which will be the 22nd, and will start around 5 o’clock to simulate a similar kickoff time to Dallas. Then on the 29th, it’ll be around 1 o’clock that we’ll start that to get a feel for what a lot of our home games will feel like. Those are the general times that we’ll end up starting that. But, as far as the specifics around it, I’ll wait until I get the injury report, but it will be a lot of good work. We’ll try to mimic and emulate a game-like situation as much as possible in those two opportunities.”
Jared Goff said recently that there will be an acclimation period at SoFi Stadium because of the vast differences between the new building and the Rams’ old home, the Coliseum. Whether it’s the clock placements, the shadows or simply the Oculus hanging above the field, Goff said he’ll have to get used to the stadium early on, which shouldn’t be too difficult.
McVay hasn’t decided who will and won’t play in the scrimmages, but it sounds like there will be tackling and more contact than they’ve had in the early portion of camp.
“We still want to practice smart, but we will have some opportunities with specific players, like I mentioned. Play real football, might tackle. Who those guys are is yet to be determined,” he said. “I think that will provide a real opportunity for us to use and not necessarily use the lack of preseason games as an excuse to not evaluate these guys. Those two opportunities will serve as a chance for some guys that would have gotten a lot of snaps in the preseason to maybe play some real football where we’re tackling and doing things that a real one would entail.”
It’s highly unlikely the Rams will share much from the scrimmages, so as not to tip their hand to other teams on social media, but hopefully we at least get some photos and a few videos of players on the field at the $5 billion stadium.