LA Rams OTAs: Rams training rookies how to train in the NFL

The opening message delivered by Rams reporter J.B. Long as he covered the 2023 LA Rams OTAs in their annual Rams OTA recap with cohost D'Marco Farr said it best:

'It feels like the Rams are practicing to practice.'

The LA Rams roster is no longer a group of veterans who have been there, done that, this season. This is a group of players who are primarily comprised of first-year NFL rookies. As such, the Rams' entire training camp will take on a completely different vibe.

LIke the first day of any education process, or the first day of military training, the LA Rams roster will be give little in the way of playbook and strategy initially. Due to the fact that so many players have never been in the NFL before, the Rams are going to be going over the basics initially. The Rams coaches will spend this week communicating to the players on setting of standards, expectations, and the rules of their workouts.

And . . . Here . . . We . . . Go . . .

The offseason training days can be a fun time of year for football fans. It's just helmets, track shoes and shorts, which makes everything that the players do seem so much more larger than life. Without real football contact, the players are more like gazelles than rhinos, have more race car than road grader, and leaps and catches appear to be as easy as pie. And we can even lull ourselves into the belief that everything is peaking, at least until the football pads go on.

There is a lot of basic foundation ground to cover with the Rams roster as OTAs begin, and while it may not be thrilling for fans, it is the baseline that everything else will be build on going forward.

This is not a Rams team that is refined. On the contrary, this is a group of Rams players who are not yet even worthy of the category of team. That will come as the Rams coaching staff puts everyone through their paces, bonds form, camaraderie and esprit de corps kick in, and the group of individual players begin to assemble into a single team.