May 11, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams defensive tackle Michael Brockers (90) runs during mini camp at ContinuityX Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

The Rams finished up their two-day rookie “orientation/don’t call it minicamp” on Saturday afternoon, and much like Friday head coach Jeff Fisher spoke afterwards and had plenty of good things to say. Before I get into Fisher quotes, it sounds like several members of this draft class have really been impressive over the last few days. I’ve heard from a few different people who were in attendance that Brian Quick and Janoris Jenkins were both highly impressive Saturday. It also sounds like Isaiah Pead and Michael Brockers had a nice weekend, and other than cramping at the end of Saturday’s workout, Chris Givens was also good. Jenkins was the name I heard most by those who were there, as he must have looked like he was light-years ahead of all of the other corners in attendance and he also reportedly caught the ball very well.

Now, here is some of what Fisher had to say after Saturday’s session.

“We were very impressed. Since we talked last, we had a three hour meeting last night and installed a bunch more offense and defense and then again did the same this morning. The offense came out and had a walk-thru. The defense did not. I thought both sides responded pretty well.”

“This is a good class. They’re working good together. We’re going to meet this afternoon. We’re going to do some more orientation and then obviously they’re going to stay. Then on Monday they’ll pick the work up, just the rookies, and then Tuesday we’ll have our first OTA with everybody together.”

(On Quick): “We expect him to play and be a big part of our offense. We don’t think about it any other way than that. That’s why we drafted him, and we expect him to do it. It’s a long time between now and the opener, so we feel like he’s got a chance to continue to develop and become more comfortable with what we’re doing. We wouldn’t have taken him at the spot where we took him were we not convinced that he was one of those guys that could learn fast and help us very early in the season.”

(On Brockers): “I would say just his quickness for a big man, his change of direction. It’s hard to measure his strength out here, other than on the bags, but he’s got great quickness and long arms. He’s going to be an impact player for us.”

(On upcoming OTAs): “As we told the varsity this past week, we’re going to start again from Day One with the installation, and by the time we’re done in mid-June, we will have installed absolutely everything. Then we’re going to do it again when training camp starts. So when they come and report to training camp, they’ll know exactly what to expect through camp. The only difference is we’re going to put some pads on at times.”

May 11, 2012; St. Louis, MO, USA; St. Louis Rams wide receiver Brian Quick (83) runs as cornerback Trumaine Johnson (22) defends during mini camp at ContinuityX Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-US PRESSWIRE

The St. Louis Rams completed the first day of their rookie minicamp on Friday, and by all accounts things went fairly well. Jeff Fisher called the camp “orientation” more than a minicamp, but it sounds like things still went well. Here is a little of what Fisher had to say to the media after the session.

“Well, the first day’s nearly over. We had a meet-n-greet last night with them and we got physicals, and then we outfitted for equipment and got up early this morning. You could clearly tell in the room, which guys were the West Coast guys at about 9:30 in the morning. But we got a lot done. We had to teach them how to stretch and show them the facility and explain to them what we wanted to get accomplished . I crossed out the minicamp and I put orientation on it because at minicamp you’re running around full speed like wild men and you’re in great shape – and they’re not – so this is more of an orientation. But I thought the first day was good. We saw some good things. Some things that we saw prior to the draft, translated to the field.”

“We didn’t have a quarterback-center exchange on the ground. This is the first rookie practice I’ve been associated with where that didn’t happen, so that’s good. It looked like they were learning well. We got three or four coverages in on defense and enough to have a team period on offense, so guys are moving around.”

“Well, we’re installing football, so they’re learning football. But keep in mind, they need to learn how we eat. They need to learn about how we conduct ourselves in they training room and the weight room, in the meeting rooms. They’re getting to know each other, so there’s a lot of information that we’re giving them, in addition to the football and just to prepare them. Most important thing is that they realize that they are, because of the process way behind the veterans as far as conditioning is concerned. So they need to be honest with us and we need to find out where they are because we want to avoid pulls and we need to close that gap as quickly as we can. Probably going to take two or three weeks before we’ve got them caught up.”

Feb 26, 2012; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Appalachian State wide receiver Brian Quick participates in a catch and run drill during the NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Spurlock-US PRESSWIRE

All of the new rookies, and there are plenty of them, will get their first real taste of the NFL this week when the team hod their rookie minicamp Friday and Saturday. Michael Brockers, Brian Quick and the rest of the rookies will be on the field Friday from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and they will be back Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

Rookie camp is usually a fun couple of days, but with the huge number of draft pics and UDFAs, there should be plenty of competition as well. It will be fun to see how the new guys look in Rams blue and gold, and it’s also a nice little piece of football during this awful down time when nothing is going on.

I’m really excited about this draft class and the young players on this team, so let’s get them on the field and see what they have. This could be the start of something very, very special.