When news dropped in early July of Jamon Brown's suspension, it meant the Rams would have to do some shuffling on the offensive line — at least for their first two regular-season games.
Nevertheless, Brown lined up in his usual spot at right guard with the first-team offense for Los Angeles' first training camp practice on Thursday afternoon.
As head coach Sean McVay explained it, "[J]ust being Day 1, he's a starting-caliber player, and that's kind of how we wanted to operate today."
Check out exclusive shots of Rams players reporting to 2018 Training Camp in Irvine, Calif.
McVay also hinted that Brown will likely keep his job as a starter when he is eligible to return.
"We'll anticipate Jamon coming back in after those first couple weeks," the head coach said. "But we do certainly have some plans and some contingency plans in place where we'll start to get some other guys in there, give them a chance to get a couple reps with the first-team group."
Brown released a statement via Twitter earlier this month where he apologized to members of the Rams organization, his family, and fans saying, "I let you down." On Thursday, he revealed the incident that led to the suspension.
"I was pulled over for speeding and they found marijuana in the car," Brown said, noting the incident occurred in his home state of Kentucky. "So, it was kind of like a careless mistake, but it happens. All I can do now is make sure I'm ready for when it's time for me to be back."
"It was something that potentially we knew about," Brown added. "When the whole incident happened in 2017, I let the head coach know, I let the GM know. So they knew about it. Obviously, it got released so it was news for everyone — even news for me."
As Brown noted in his statement, the incident occurred 18 months ago during the 2017 offseason. That's part of why Brown says he wasn't necessarily ready for the suspension to come about, based on some of the information that had been shared with him by the NFLPA.
Still, Brown will be out for the first two games of the season in the last year of his rookie contract.
"I've got to let that take care of itself," Brown said. "The only thing I could do is communicate with, obviously, coach McVay and with Les Snead. And that's what I did. I'm hoping that shows signs of who I am — being able to kind of get out in front of it and let them know first thing. But, I mean, I don't think that it would. But we'll see."
Brown did note that his teammates have been supportive throughout the entire process.
"A lot of them knew about my situation," Brown said. "But they've been supportive, they've been behind me. And they know I'll get it corrected and moving forward, I'll be better for it."
