Tag: 1519

IRVINE, Calif. — The Los Angeles Rams opened 2022 NFL training camp on Sunday at University of California-Irvine. Here’s a closer look at a few storylines:

The biggest question: When will quarterback Matthew Stafford throw? Stafford didn’t throw during the offseason after he received an injection in his right elbow for an injury he dealt with last season, but said he will “definitely” be ready during training camp. But when will that be? On the last day of minicamp, Stafford said he still had “a lot of work to do physically just to get ready to go” and feels like he’s entering training camp “in peak position to go out there and play at a high level.” The Rams’ coaching staff isn’t worried about Stafford’s mastery of the offense and there’s been dialogue about making sure Stafford is ready to go during camp.

Training camp is a success if … Stafford is 100% healthy for Week 1: Stafford proved himself in Sean McVay’s offense last season and the head coach said during the spring workout that Stafford “now has such ownership” of it going into his second year in L.A. While the Rams added wide receiver Allen Robinson II in free agency, so much of the offense already has familiarity with Stafford. Although Stafford didn’t throw during minicamp, McVay praised the way the quarterback was able to work during the “above-the-neck emphasis drills,” and said Stafford was “coaching guys up” when he was watching drills from the sidelines.

Obviously most NFL teams rely on the health of their starting quarterback, but given Stafford’s elbow injury, the most important thing for the Rams is to finish training camp with Stafford at 100%.

The player with the most to prove: Wide receiver Van Jefferson. As Odell Beckham Jr. recovers from a torn ACL, there’s been a thought that the wide receiver could re-sign with the Rams during the season if all goes well with his rehab. But while the Rams have the necessary cap space (around $7.5 million, according to Over the Cap), a strong start to the season from Jefferson could diminish the need to bring back Beckham.

Jefferson took a big step forward in his second season, finishing with 50 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns, and that was as Los Angeles’ third receiving option for much of the season. Beckham was crucial to the Rams’ Super Bowl run and victory — despite the injury — but Jefferson will likely have the chance to prove he can be a strong No. 2 or 3 receiver in 2022.

As NFL training camps swing into action, NFL Nation looks at the top storylines and offers a prediction for each team.
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Most impactful offseason addition: Linebacker Bobby Wagner. The Rams lost Von Miller in free agency, and although Wagner is not a direct replacement, he brings a great deal of veteran leadership to the Rams’ defense. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said “you can’t help” but learn from the veteran linebacker when you’re around him, and saw during the spring how beneficial that was to other players at the position, especially 2021 third-round pick Ernest Jones. Morris said Wagner “slows the game down for everybody around him” and said Wagner is still a guy who can “go out there all three downs and play every single snap of the season.”

Camp prediction: Tutu Atwell ends camp as No. 3 receiver. Both Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp pointed out Atwell’s improvement during the spring. Atwell, the Rams’ second-round pick in 2021, played 10 offensive snaps last season but had a role on special teams before injuring his shoulder and being placed on injured reserve in November. The Rams have a strong trio of Kupp, Robinson and Jefferson, but a solid camp from Atwell will give him a bigger opportunity entering the regular season.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — At the Los Angeles Rams‘ Super Bowl parade in February, All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald stood at the podium to echo coach Sean McVay’s “run it back” chant.

“We built a superteam,” Donald said at the parade. “We’re gonna bring a superteam back! Why not run it back?”

And while the Rams made sure they kept their core group of players under contract for the foreseeable future by reworking Donald’s contract and signing quarterback Matthew Stafford and wide receiver Cooper Kupp to contract extensions, the defense will look a bit different than in Super Bowl LVI.

Los Angeles hoped it could bring back outside linebacker Von Miller, but it couldn’t compete with the six-year, $120 million contract he got from the Buffalo Bills. Instead of looking for another pass-rusher, the Rams looked to add quality in a different linebacker position with future Hall of Fame inside linebacker Bobby Wagner.

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While Wagner and Miller are obviously not straight swaps in terms of position or skill set — Miller is a pass-rusher with 115.5 sacks, and Wagner is a tackling machine who has averaged 138.3 per season in his 10-year career, including a career-high 170 last season with the Seattle Seahawks — the Rams once again added a championship-winning veteran who will bring leadership to a roster that lost several key players to retirement or free agency since that Super Bowl victory.

Rookie Ernest Jones played a big part at middle linebacker for the Rams en route to the championship, so it did seem like an odd fit for Wagner in Los Angeles. Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris said Wagner, who should start alongside Jones, is still “one of those guys that can play every single down.” Morris said the Rams are working on what adding Wagner means for the defense, but that “all those things will play themselves out as you get into the season and you start game planning.”

“He’s certainly a guy that can go out there all three downs and play every single snap of the season, and it wouldn’t shock me one bit if he was able to do that,” Morris said.

McVay said he noticed that Wagner seemed “really comfortable” during the spring install of the Rams’ defense, saying, “It’s still football at the end of the day, and he’s got such a seamless way of being able to build those relationships and he’s such a likable guy.”

“He’s really a pleasure to talk to, to communicate the defense to,” Morris said. “Tell him the whys, the whats, the wheres, the hows. And then to get some input from him also. He does a great job. He’s been in this league for a long time and has been a great presence on command and leadership, so I learn stuff from him every day as well. So I’m really excited about working with him.”

During minicamp, Kupp talked about how “daunting” the defense is, something he said will make him better because he goes up against the unit every day in practice. The defense has an elite player on every level: Donald, Wagner and cornerback Jalen Ramsey.

“When you talk about who I believe are three guys that are either locked themselves as Hall of Famers or on track to do so,” Kupp said. “And that’s an incredible thing to have on each level of that defense and the leadership that they have. … It’s a daunting thing. I’m glad it’s just practice and then we get to go against it and practice against it, and it will make things a little bit easier for us.”

The Rams ranked fourth in Football Outsiders’ Defensive DVOA last season — third against the pass and 10th against the run. There is little room for improvement. With Wagner, though, the best might be yet to come for the Los Angeles defense.

“When you’ve got that kind of talent all across the board on all levels,” Kupp added, “and you’ve got to include Flo [outside linebacker Leonard Floyd] in that mix and some of the other guys that have played a lot of football for us. It’s just really fun to be around. It’s really fun to get the grasp and the understanding on how we want to do things and how we move forward every single day. So that’s extremely fun to be around.”

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was asked how he and wide receiver Cooper Kupp could possibly top their success from last season.

Stafford joked, “You can’t sit there and go, ‘Well, the only thing to do now is go for 2,500 yards and I’ll throw for 7,000. That’s unrealistic.”

But offensive coordinator Liam Coen knows one of the Rams’ offseason moves could not only make this offense more dangerous, but help Kupp as well. While Kupp and now-Rams wide receiver Allen Robinson II have been utilized differently in their careers, both receivers are so versatile, Coen said, the Rams can use variations of formations to move both around to different spots and create favorable matchups.

“Getting Cooper [Kupp] on a nickel, getting Allen [Robinson] on a backer and then switching those guys,” Coen said. “And vice versa. We think it will be difficult to defend and it was obviously difficult to defend [Kupp] over the last few years and having the kind of guys that we had. But given that diversity that Allen brings to us, I definitely think that it will present some challenges to the defense.”

Coen said Robinson’s route tree is “extremely expanded from probably years ago, or maybe what we’ve had our other receivers do.”

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“I mean, he can run a lot of routes that Cooper can, you know — some of those option routes and choice routes and things that we asked Cooper to do — because he just has an unbelievable ability to play underneath himself,” Coen said.

Kupp had one of the best seasons a wide receiver in history — winning the receiving “triple crown” with 145 receptions for 1,947 yards and 16 touchdowns — and did so running 58% of his routes out of the slot, with Robert Woods or Odell Beckham Jr. playing opposite Van Jefferson on the outside. Still, Kupp was able to stretch seams and break through for big plays out of a position that isn’t known for them.

Last season with the Chicago Bears, 37.4% of the routes Robinson ran were in the slot. If the Rams are confident Robinson could take up some of the responsibility on the inside, it would give Kupp more room to occasionally operate on the outside. Without Woods or Beckham — at least to start the season — there will be a need for another vertical threat opposite Jefferson.

While Robinson is capable of doing that himself — he had 102 receptions for 1,250 yards and six touchdowns in 2020 before suffering through an illness- and injury-plagued 2021 — perhaps Coen and coach Sean McVay get creative, with Robinson and Kupp splitting that responsibility more than expected.

“He’s one of those bigger receivers that has body control of a smaller guy,” McVay said. “I’ve said this before, I bet you he’s really good when you play pickup basketball because he can get parallel, he can double-up, he has great body control. He has great ball skills.”

Robinson, who signed a three-year, $46 million contract with Los Angeles this offseason, spent the last four seasons with the Bears after breaking in with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The veteran receiver said he spent the spring workouts moving around and “learning the offense from many different spots on the field.”

“Now,” Robinson said during OTAs, “it’s just about building chemistry and learning more so of the nuances of things.”

Stafford didn’t throw during the offseason program as he recovers from a right elbow injury. Still, the quarterback said, one benefit to not being able to participate in every drill is he’s had more time to talk to Robinson on the sidelines and between plays.

“I’ve been very, very impressed with his ability to grasp our offense, his role in our offense,” Stafford said. “His understanding, even when he might miss something or mess something up, the reason is so sound on why he did something — he heard this and thought that, and I’m like, ‘That’s a great thought.’ It’s really productive growth for him in our offense.”

Coen said other than Robinson’s versatility, the receiver’s “unbelievable ability to double you up at the point of attack” stood out to him this spring.

“He really can work edges on you,” Coen said. “Lean and press away from you at the top of the routes. He has really good details, both in the release game and at the top of the routes.”

Robinson said he has already gotten a lot of help from Kupp, saying the pair is “always talking through those different things and really being very specific.” Last season, the Rams ranked seventh in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ passing DVOA. And although the Rams traded Woods and haven’t re-signed Beckham — at least not yet — Kupp said it’s been “great” to work with Robinson.

“It’s been so much fun to be able to collaborate with him,” Kupp said. “There’s a lot of potential for us to be able to do some really special things, but we have to stack the blocks day-by-day and build into that.”

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — It didn’t take much time after the Los Angeles Rams won Super Bowl LVI for the front office trio of general manager Les Snead, COO Kevin Demoff and VP of football and business administration Tony Pastoors to turn to the task ahead: Keeping as much of this championship roster together as possible.

The first big move was to sign quarterback Matthew Stafford to a contract extension in March, tying him to the franchise through the 2026 season. And then last week, the Rams reworked defensive tackle Aaron Donald‘s contract to give him a big raise and signed wide receiver Cooper Kupp to a three-year contract extension that pairs him with Stafford for five more seasons.

After the Donald and Kupp deals, the Rams still have $7.6 million of cap space, according to Over the Cap.

And while those are the three long-term deals the Rams have done this offseason, there is plenty of talent alongside them. The Rams are now the only team in the NFL with two players — Stafford and Donald — who have an average salary at least $30 million per year in their current contracts. Cornerback Jalen Ramsey, who signed a five-year, $100 million contract extension in 2020, has a cap hit of $23.2 million this season. Wide receiver Allen Robinson II signed a three-year, $46.5 million contract this offseason.

So, how did they do it?

With a top-heavy roster containing so many star players, the Rams have to rely on their draft picks to add cheaper talent. For this to work, they have had to find young talent to fill in around the headliners. The Rams have managed despite not having a first-round draft pick since 2016. The Rams have 11 projected starters they’ve picked on the second or third day of the draft since 2017, led by Kupp (a third-rounder in 2017).

The recent contract extensions also helped the Rams’ cap space for this season. Kupp’s cap number for this season went down with the extension, from $18.3 to $17.8 million, according to OTC.

Extending Stafford in March also gave the Rams some cap flexibility this year.

While Stafford’s contract averages $40 million per season, his cap hit for 2022 is $13.5 million, which is 6.71% of the Rams’ salary cap and a sizable reduction from the $23 million cap hit he would have had before the extension. Stafford’s deal does jump to $20 million in 2023 and then $49.5 million the following season, which is when many people around the league are expecting the cap to explode with the potential of huge TV deals.

But it’s a bargain right now. By comparison, the Green Bay Packers‘ Aaron Rodgers has a cap hit of $28.5 million in 2022, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes‘ is $37.8 million and the Buffalo Bills‘ Josh Allen‘s $16.4 million.

According to OTC, the Rams are currently $2.5 million over the projected cap for 2023 and $7.8 million under for 2024, but those cap numbers won’t be set until after each preceding season and could drastically change.

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One player the Rams did not retain was outside linebacker Von Miller, who signed a six-year, $120 million contract with the Buffalo Bills in free agency. The Rams also have not re-signed wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who tore the ACL in his left knee during the Super Bowl.

The Rams could re-sign Beckham, who attended head coach Sean McVay’s wedding earlier this month. McVay joked that Beckham knew the expectation was, “You come to the wedding, you’ve got to sign with the Rams.”

After he signed his contract, Donald said it was not his top priority to become the highest-paid non-quarterback in the NFL. Instead, he said, one of the “most important things for me was feeling that the pieces that we brought in were going to still be here.”

With the core tied together for at least the next three seasons, the Rams were able to extend their Super Bowl window.

In an offseason of upheaval in the Los Angeles Rams‘ secondary, cornerback Jalen Ramsey remains the constant. The group’s best player, sure, but also the team’s most vocal and enthusiastic recruiter.

Which is why it was no surprise to see Ramsey take to Twitter during the NFL draft encouraging Rams fans to “blow up” the mentions of then free-agent safety Tyrann Mathieu. Alas, Ramsey’s pursuit of Mathieu didn’t go far, as he signed with the New Orleans Saints.

Absent that one big move, the Rams weren’t shy about making plenty of other additions to a secondary that lost cornerback Darious Williams to the Jacksonville Jaguars in free agency.

Headlining the list was a trade that made Ramsey quite happy, as the Rams sent a 2023 fifth-round selection to the Cleveland Browns to re-acquire cornerback Troy Hill. Yes, the same Hill who played for the Rams from 2016-20 before signing a two-year, $9 million deal with Cleveland last offseason is back in the fold after the Rams struggled to replace him last season.

Armed with seven picks on Day 3 of the draft, the Rams spent four of those choices on defensive backs, adding South Carolina State cornerback Decobie Durant in the fourth round, UCLA safety Quentin Lake (sixth round), Georgia cornerback Derion Kendrick (sixth round) and Kansas State safety Russ Yeast (seventh round).

“DB was definitely something we were going to strategically target,” Rams general manager Les Snead said. “There was a moment where players that we liked were still on the board and let’s double down, triple down.”

If nothing else, Hill’s return gives the Rams needed stability and versatility to complement Ramsey as the Rams sort through other options that include the aforementioned rookies and the likes of David Long Jr., Robert Rochell, Grant Haley and Tyler Hall.

Because Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris likes to use Ramsey all over the defense, Hill’s ability to do a little of everything should also come in handy.

“He’s a guy that played really good football for us,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “I think just the overall production, the position flexibility, the ability to play that nickel, the star position and be able to play outside and, as they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. … Being able to get him back, he was excited and I know the players are excited to get him back here with us as well.”

Hill enjoyed a breakout season with the Rams in 2020 in which he posted three interceptions, 10 passes defended and scored a league-high three defensive touchdowns. In 12 games with the Browns, Hill had no interceptions and just one pass defended.

While Hill said he enjoyed the people he met in Cleveland, he said he learned “the grass is never as green on the other side” in his year away from the Rams.

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“Even when I was in Cleveland, I always found myself trying to compare things to how it was done over here in L.A.,” Hill said. “I don’t know if it was me more so just trying to compare as far as this is what a winning program [does], or if I was just missing everything that was happening over here.”

As for the rookies, immediate playing time will likely have to come in the form of special teams, but each brings something different to the table the Rams could tap into if needed.

Regardless of how it shakes out in the near term, Snead believes that making the secondary the first priority in this draft will pay off over the long haul.

“I often say in some draft classes where it’s very similar to a mutual fund where OK you are going to bring in a lot of players with different skill sets, genres, and you put them in the room and it just becomes a very competitive and obviously deeper room,” Snead said.

Andrew Whitworth was the left tackle for the Los Angeles Rams for five seasons, but somehow it felt like more.

Whitworth joined the Rams in 2017, when they were coming off a 4-12 season, playing in the aging Los Angeles Coliseum and quarterbacked by Jared Goff. By time he retired earlier this month, the Rams were Super Bowl champions, playing in the most modern of NFL stadiums at SoFi Stadium and quarterbacked by Matthew Stafford.

It’s going to take the Rams a little while to get used to a world without him.

“It’s a new era of Rams offensive line,” center Brian Allen said. “It’s going to be weird without Whit there.”

The Rams have been grooming his replacement, Joe Noteboom — a third-round draft pick in 2018 — the past four seasons. Noteboom has played various offensive line positions, started a total of 17 regular-season games and was recently re-signed by the Rams to a three-year, $40 million contract with $25 million guaranteed.

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“The best part is knowing the coaches have the confidence in you to sign you back to a contract here and put you in that spot,” Noteboom said. “But it’s also a challenge. Being the guy now comes with a little more responsibility. It’s motivating more than ever.”

Noteboom said his four seasons as Whitworth’s teammate weren’t wasted. He said he learned things such as work habits, preparing his body for a long season and diet from the veteran tackle.

“It was a perfect situation [to learn],” Noteboom said. “There was no other guy in the league I’d rather have been behind for those four years. That gives me confidence going into it.”

Noteboom played some at both tackle spots and left guard last season, his first with Stafford as his teammate.

“He’s a plug-and-play player for us,” Stafford said. “Wherever we needed him, he stepped in and played at a high level against some really quality opponents. I’m looking forward to seeing his development on the left side and seeing him do his thing for a bunch of years.”

Allen and Noteboom arrived the same season as Rams draft picks. Allen said Noteboom was “the left tackle in waiting” over the past four years even as he moved around the offensive line.

“I think that left tackle spot really is where he’ll shine the most,” Allen said. “I’m pumped for him to have this opportunity to really be the guy. … He absorbed so much wisdom and so much stuff that Whit taught him over those four years.”

Allen also re-signed with the Rams this year, on a three-year contract for $18 million, with $10 million guaranteed.

“It was definitely a little more stressful than I thought it was going to be … being my first time having gone through free agency so I really wasn’t sure what to expect or really what I was getting myself into,” he said. “But I wanted to be back in L.A. and I’m excited about how things unfolded.

“I really didn’t want to leave not knowing how much better I could be in our offense. That was definitely something that was in the back of my mind that I didn’t want to go somewhere and be in a situation where I didn’t have someone like Matt to work with … he’d be a hard person to let know you were leaving.”

Losing Whitworth isn’t the only change coming to the Rams on offense. They also traded wide receiver Robert Woods to the Tennessee Titans for a sixth-round pick in 2023. But they added another receiver, Allen Robinson II, in free agency with a three-year, $46.5 million contact and re-signed Stafford to a four-year contract extension worth $160 million.

The Rams could still re-sign wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., though he won’t be available early next season after tearing his ACL in the Rams’ Super Bowl LVI victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.