Rams Dome Scrimmage Recap

The Rams scrimmage at the Edward Jones Dome on Saturday was by all accounts a pretty big success, as just under 13,000 people showed up to check out the new-look squad under head coach Jeff Fisher. As it always goes with this kind of thing, there were a few guys who stood out, but it probably wasn’t the guys you would expect. The biggest star of the day was probably rookie kicker Greg Zuerlein, who put on a long-distance field goal show. Zuerlein nailed kicks from 39, 44, 49, 54 and 59 yards before just missing a 64-yarder that had the distance but drifted to the left. I know it’s still only practice, but the kid has a bomb and he looks to be fairly accurate as well. Plenty of people were floored when the Rams picked Zuerlein in the draft, but those who saw him today probably feel quite a bit better about that selection now.

Another player who had a good day was WR Brandon Gibson, who seems to put on a show every year in the preseason and then return to the actual Brandon Gibson when the regular season kicks off. I’m not saying we should discount what he is doing so far of what he did today, as he made two really impressive catches during the workout, but I will remind everyone that he has a history of being a different player when the games count. For what it’s worth, Sam Bradford really likes him and they seem to be on the same page, so that could bode well for his chances to make the team. I won’t be heartbroken if he doesn’t make the final cut, however.

The offense got plenty of work in today, and it sounds like coach Fisher was pretty happy with how everything went. “It was really good. All week I think they were kind of looking forward to this to kind of finish up the first phase of camp. What we wanted to accomplish today was a lot of situation things. We did a 4-minute offense, trying to get the ball back on defense and play keep away on offense, and of course we did the 2-minute with a lot of good individual work and 1-on-1 situation stuff. Overall, it was good. We came through healthy. It looks like we’ll get some guys back on Monday. Most of the DBs will be back on Monday. They’re obviously done now, they’re off tomorrow, we come back Monday and we’ll have three good, solid days of camp and then we’ll start preparing for our first preseason opponent.”

Bradford also had positive things to say about the workout. “Really, it was just a normal practice for us. We went through the same thing we do in a normal day, but I thought we had a great two-minute drill today. It’s something that we talked about actually last night in our meetings, so it was nice to see that carry over onto the field and (for) us to go out and execute the way we did today. Other than that we got some good work in some different areas. Today was the first time we went goal line. Got some good live snaps down there. I’ll have to look at the tape, but I thought we had a pretty good practice today.”

SJ39 shared the positive feelings as well after practice. “So far so good. We’ve been installing this (offense) now for some months. We started in the spring and I think a lot of it has carried over and the guys are clicking, especially within the 1s. The blocking schemes are being able to … everyone’s been on the same page and looking really good on the run game. We have to continue to just work on it and just work on the chemistry and make sure that we can try all stay on the field together. That’s how you can build off of that success.”