Rams Training Camp Notes: 08/23/2016

Rams

Rams Head Coach Jeff Fisher Training Camp Post-Practice – August 23, 2016

(On how QB Jared Goff is doing in practice)

“Jared’s doing great. He had a good day today. He made some really good throws. Got comfortable in a couple periods, ran with the 1s in at least two periods. He was very comfortable. Made some really good throws.”

 

(On why Goff seems more comfortable in two-minute situations)

“Yeah, he is. He’s got a good feel for it. Oftentimes, in two-minute situations, we shut the pass rush down, so he’s got more time and the defensive line kind of settles down. Today, we rushed, but many times when he’s had a two-minute, you kind of tone the rush down a little bit and do the route recognition exercise.”

 

(On practice today)

“It was great. It was back in pads again, we had a good tempo yesterday, we had a few mistakes and I thought both sides responded. We got some really good special teams work and we were competitive. We did a lot of things today – from plus-20 passing to move-plus-20 to third-down stuff, to third-and-short, we were all over the place, and then two-minute. We had a lot going on.”

 

(On the tight end unit)

“With the addition of the two rookies (Tyler Higbee and Temarrick Hemingway), we really like the group right now, they’re coming on. I don’t want to say we exposed them, but we brought them into the special teams part of the game. Up until this point, for different reasons, neither one of them were doing much teams. They’ll play this week in special teams roles, which is important for them.”

 

(On if he’s looking for anything specific from DE Ian Seau this week in the game versus Denver)

“No, we’re going to give him a chance to play and continue to show us what he can do. (Defensive line) Coach ‘Wauf’ (Mike Waufle) is an outstanding coach and you could see some subtle improvements in some areas, especially his hand placement, his positioning, his pad level against the run, things like that.”

 

(On what the addition of defensive assistant Mike Singletary has done for the defense)

“I just like having Mike around – one of the best to play the middle linebacker position in the history of this game. He really wanted to get back on the field, so we invited him out. I told him just to have fun and enjoy it, he’s working in a lot of different areas – offense, defense and special teams.”

 

(On if the NFL is changing to where you can have smaller, quicker interior defensive linemen like DT Aaron Donald)

“No, you’re going to find a lot of big guys around the league. We faced one last week that was a big human being – and strong and powerful. We just liked Aaron’s skillset coming out. He plays a lot bigger than he is, just because of his leverage, and his strength, and his quickness.”

 

(On if there’s a benefit to having a smaller, quicker defensive lineman)

“It depends on your scheme. You build your scheme around it. That’s what you have do and that’s what we’ve done.”

 

(On if he’s made any determination on how long each quarterback will play this weekend versus Denver)

“Not yet, we’ll probably talk about it tonight or tomorrow. As soon as we know, we’ll let you know.”

 

Rams Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams Training Camp Post-Practice – August 23, 2016

 

(On his thoughts regarding the team’s progression over the past three weeks)

“These guys have had a very good 2016, and I think the organization has done a fantastic job on blocking out distractions, relocating; we’re going to move three times in five months, and all these guys do is come to practice every day, come to meetings every day. That’s their routine. The most calm part of what we do is coming out here on the practice field, coming into the meeting rooms. There’s not a lot of new stuff. They’re used to me, I’m used to them. So it’s been a real productive spring, and I do like how they’ve come back from the spring OTAs, and coming back in condition here for these training camp practices. It’s been a real positive format, so far.”

 

(On how much more he can do now in year three with the Rams)

“The biggest thing is that when we stay healthy, the thing we’ve done the best around here is that we’ve had to battle lots of things with injuries, with losses of players, and that type of stuff; playing a lot of snaps, because we’ve struggled scoring and stuff. So what we’ve done is we’ve had to play a lot of snaps, and those guys have done a great job of doing whatever it takes to play good defense. So I’ve been real proud of that. Plus, we’ve played a lot of people. So we have some experience here that needs to step up and get ready to take the next step. We have a lot of different philosophies that we go by. Everybody has X’s and O’s. But what’s the culture, you go back creating? Coach Fisher has a good culture, and that’s one of the things I think I do best, on culture. And then changing the X’s and O’s to fit the players that are fitting into that. We’re doing that same thing here. We have a chance to be very fast on defense. We’ve got to stay healthy. And we’ve done a good job on the preseason games on who we’ve held out, who we’ve tried to play, who we’ve limited reps. We’ve not done any game planning at all, because to be quite truthful, I need to see some of these new, young players play. I have no idea. Practices are so much different now in the NFL and training camp, with the non-contact that you have; the ways with not very many padded practices. So now you get a chance to get them into a game, especially some of these young college guys coming in as rookies. And even some of the veteran guys that we sign free agents that came from other teams, I’m not seeing them under duress, I’m not seeing battle in the game, so it’s been very good. And I think the second half of all the games that these young guys have played have been very good. The things that have happened in the first half in a couple of these games have been very good correctable things that these guys have grown from. So far, so good. Now when they take the next step this week, It’ll be interesting to see these guys play. I have a lot of respect for (Broncos Head Coach) Gary Kubiak and the way he coaches offense, and the way that staff puts things together. I really like their defense, too. I know (Broncos Defensive Coordinator) Wade (Philips) and all those guys as a lot of friends on that staff in the coaching profession. But, when we’re playing in the game, none of us are friends. We’re playing until the game is over.”

(On what he’s seen from DE Robert Quinn so far)

“He’s done very well. And again, one of the biggest things you have to do with a competitor like him is hold him back. If we didn’t have the problem of holding him back, we have the wrong guy. He has pushed so hard and done so well and we’ve done a very good job, with (Director of Sports Medicine and Performance) Reggie (Scott) and the training room and our doctors and our head coach and our D-line coach Mike Waufle on how we have brought him along. He has gotten better every single day. You guys are going to see a few things, but I don’t need to see a whole ton of reps of him. I need to see him play on gameday in a regular season. I’ve been through a lot of games with him, I see him in practice every day. He’ll got some limited reps, but not looking to get a lot of banging around because I want to see him banging around come Monday Night Football against San Francisco.”

 

(On what makes Quinn special)

“He does things that you can’t coach, he has some of the fastest-twitch pass-rushing I’ve ever seen. Then, when you watch a pass rusher turn the corner, everybody in the National Football League has to turn the corner at nine yards. The good ones start turning the corner at eight yards, the Pro Bowlers will start turning the corners at seven yards, when you’ll see the quarterbacks at seven. You’ll see Robert turn it at a four, five and six – not very many people can do that, only the elite of the elite. I can’t coach that, I’m a better coach when he plays and does that, I’m telling you that.”

 

(On what he’s seeing from LB/S Mark Barron in his first full year in his new role)

“Light years (ahead of where he was). What’s so much fun to see is how much he has grasped. Last year, the biggest thing we wanted to do as a staff is not overload him, not slow him down. In fact, we talked as a staff, and I know the staff got irritated with him, I told the staff ‘don’t coach him. Unless he asks a question, let him alone – and then when he asks a question, that’s what he needs to know to figure it out.’ Now, this year, we’ve started from day one, scratch one, building him back up through there and the light has really clicked on for him. He’s one of the fastest linebackers in the National Football League, he’ll be even better this year. We’ve got to keep him healthy, we’re doing a few special things with him to keep him more healthy and how we’re playing him behind the ball. I really can’t wait to see he and (LB Alec) Ogletree play together. You guys are going to see a pretty good, fast pair of backers doing things.”

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