The Rams have gotten through the beginning of the end of their offseason program, running through the first day of minicamp.
As head coach Sean McVay said last week, the mandatory minicamp is a time for the club to somewhat emulate a training camp day — going through meetings, a walk-thru, and practice all in one day.
But McVay noted there is a twist to that. Given the time of year — the Rams still have months before the Week 1 matchup against the Raiders — and all there's yet to do, the head coach decided to pare down practice for the next two days.
"Really, I think with the amount of things we feel we've accomplished throughout the offseason program and knowing still how much work needs to be done with training camp and then leading into that first game, we really felt like looking at it we'll get a chance to get two good walk-thrums," McVay said. "We've really emphasized the individual work where you kind of limit the risk of injury knowing that it is football and there's going to be some things that you can't avoid. But we wanna try to be smart about wrapping up this offseason program the right way."
The emphasis on individual work was readily apparent on Tuesday afternoon, with the first-team offense and defense only working against one another during 7-on-7 drills. In fact, the first-team offense and first-team defense did not do any 11-on-11 work on Tuesday — whether against the scout team or fellow starters.
McVay also noted that aside from defensive tackle , the whole team was in attendance for the first day of minicamp.
"It was a great turnout," McVay said. "We'll get a lot of good work done."
But there's also been a change of plans for Los Angeles third day of minicamp on Thursday. Instead of a practice in the morning, McVay said the club will go down to the Rams' future home of the Los Angeles Stadium and Entertainment District in Inglewood.
"We all know how committed Mr. Kroenke is to this project, what an excellent job he's done being invested and kind of being able to help put a product like that in this great city. We're excited about that and we want to be able to have our players down there and get a chance to see that. So, we'll use that last day of the minicamp to go to Hollywood Park and the Playa Vista [stadium preview] center."
The visit will mark a fitting end for what has been a productive offseason program. The players will then have a few weeks off before the team reconvenes in Irvine for training camp.