WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Right he found out he was voted a captain by his Rams teammates, third-year defensive back Quentin Lake called his father, Carnell.
The conversation would magnify how meaningful the distinction was.
A member of the NFL's 1990s All-Decade team who was also a First-Team All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowl selection over his 12-year career, Carnell told Quentin he wasn't named a team captain until his 10th year in the league.
"And I was like, 'Wow,'" Lake said after Thursday's practice. "That just put things in perspective to me."
Lake called the captain recognition "amazing," but first gave credit to everyone in the Rams' building for making it possible.
"I wouldn't be in the position that I am today without the people in the building, the coaches, the staff, the players, and for them to recognize me as a captain on the team, it was such a blessing," Lake said. "But credit to them for believing in me, respecting me, and seeing me as such a high-value player."
That confidence stems from Lake's preparation, habits of being a student of the game that Lake got from his dad. Rams coaches noticed it right away.
When Lake was a rookie in 2022, a knee issue sidelined him during OTAs and training camp, and ultimately delayed his NFL debut until Week 10 that season. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula, who was coaching the defensive backs at that time, remembers Lake still being "involved in the whole defense, every meeting, staying there late at night, studying it (and) making sure he was ready when his opportunity got called." McVay had a similar story from training camp that year.
"He came down to the training camp at UC Irvine when we were staying at the hotel, there was a light on in the DB room consistently, night after night at about 9:30, ten o'clock of a guy that wanted to have a big picture ownership and understanding of what we were trying to get done," McVay said. "He's a football junkie. (He) loves it. He's a great competitor."
Teammates notice that energy and enthusiasm, too, and voted accordingly.
"He's a really vocal guy. He's a guy that you know knows his stuff, and so I just can't say enough too about his character, the way that he carries himself, his energy, man," said Turner, who was voted as the other defensive captain. "I'm just super excited to to be able to lead this defense alongside him, to get somebody from the front end and the back end, and to kind of have those worlds combined, because what we do is predicated off of the back end covering. And so now to be able to have that communication and them covering, they don't have to cover as long we're getting active. And so to be able to have that leadership, that two-prong leadership along the defense, is going to be great as well."
