Johnson Oversleeps, Roke Not In Shape

Now that the rookie training camp is officially under way and open to the media, we can get a better idea of what’s going on at Rams Park with the new guys. The news is not all good, unfortunately. Newly signed CB Trumaine Johnson made his Rams debut after missing Wednesday’s workout after sleeping through his alarm and missing his flight on Wednesday, while G Rokevious Watkins has been limited to pre-practice and post-practice stretching and conditioning drills after showing up to camp out out of shape.

Both of these issues are not what you want to see from rookies, but in the big scope of things I don’t think either will be that big of a deal. I feel for Johnson, because I too have been known to sleep through my alarm. It sucks, and I’m sure he feels terrible about it, but it happens. I’m told head coach Jeff Fisher wasn’t happy about it, but it happened so let’s move on.

As far as Roke goes, I really believe he has the ability to start at LG from Day 1 on this team, so coming in not in shape and missing precious workout time is disappointing. I wouldn’t be so quick to jump on his case, though. He is a huge man who has struggled with his weight in the past, and sometimes it can be tougher for those guys to head into camp ready to go. I’m not giving him a free pass, but I think as long as he works hard to drop some weight and get in shape it won’t hurt his chances to earn a spot.

One other interesting note from Thursday was that TE Michael Hoomanawanui was one of the only veterans in attendance working out with the rookies. Illini Mike is coming back from knee surgery, so he wanted to get a little time on the field before full camp starts this weekend. He reportedly looked slim and moved around pretty well.