Rams coach Sean McVay joked last week that L.A. is "world travelers" this preseason between all of the different locations where it has held practice.
Light-hearted comments aside, he still knows the value and importance of these opportunities, particularly as a means of teaching his team adaptability in a league that requires it for players and teams to succeed.
"Well, if there is one thing I would say, (it) is, I think our guys do a great job of just seamlessly handling, some different circumstances and situations," McVay said Sunday. "If anything, last year is a great representation of that with all the different things that kind of just come up. Guys really just aren't affected by, you know, whether its traveling or change of schedules, and that's something that's necessary to be able to handle in football, and I think our guys have done that."
Take a look at the Rams second joint practice with the Raiders in Napa.
By the time the preseason concludes, the Rams will have had the opportunity to practice in four different cities, time spent at the team facility in Thousand Oaks, Calif. included.
Rookies and veterans began their preseason reporting the campus of UC Irvine in Irvine, Calif. in late July. The week-long training camp they packed their bags for joint practices with Chargers in Costa Mesa, Calif.
Meanwhile, Saturday's preseason game at Oakland marked the end of a week which included two joint practices with the Raiders in Napa, Calif. Next on the docket is a trip to Hawaii this week for a preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys.
All told, L.A. will rack up approximately 4,651.9 miles between practice and preseason game destinations, using Thousand Oaks as a base. However, McVay said these opportunities are created with the team's best interests in mind.
"A lot of these things were designed because we wanted to go to Napa to get that work in," McVay said. "We wanted to be able to go to Costa Mesa and be able to have a camp away, and then you get an opportunity to do some different things with this Hawaii trip."
Los Angeles will spend the final two weeks of the preseason practicing back home in Thousand Oaks, with a home game against the Denver Broncos in preseason week 3 and a road game at the Houston Texans week 4.
No matter where the Rams are the remainder of this month, McVay expects them to handle the schedule no differently than they have the last two weeks.
"We're going to make the most of these opportunities, and I think our guys If anything, have handled it incredibly well," McVay said. "They don't ever really complain about anything. They just kind of go about their business in a professional manner, and that's what you love about these guys."
