EL SEGUNDO – For the first time this preseason, the Rams got a chance to face an actual opponent, with a joint practice against the Chargers. The results of the day of work were mixed, depending on which side of the ball you were watching.
The Rams defense had a strong day, albeit against backup quarterback Easton Stick. The front won its matchups and clogged up running lanes, with Byron Young and Braden Fiske in particular causing chaos until the latter left practice to tend to a large blister on his foot.
The Rams offense was another story.
This wasn’t difficult to predict given the state of the team as it arrived at the Bolt, the Chargers’ new facility. The Rams were down three starting offensive linemen, including both tackles, as Rob Havenstein (ankle), Alaric Jackson (ankle) and Jonah Jackson (shoulder) are all week to week.
So with a makeshift offensive line against a Chargers front headlined by Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack, the results were predictable. In the first period of work between the Rams’ first-team offense and the Chargers’ first-team defense, the Rams gave up three sacks, committed one holding penalty and allowed one tipped pass at the line of scrimmage that turned into an interception.
Those trends continued for the rest of the day, with the tipped passes in particular halting any momentum the Rams tried to put together.
“I think they’re doing as well as they can. I think there’s a lot of learning right now,” head coach Sean McVay said. “We might not have our guys throughout the course of the season. We were able to stay relatively healthy last year and then we saw what it looked like the year before. That’s not gonna be an excuse for us.”
Sunday was the first serious test of Warren McClendon Jr., a fifth-round pick in 2023 who didn’t get much work with the first-team offense a year ago during joint practices with the Raiders and Broncos.
He was thrown into the fire against the Chargers, playing right tackle in Havenstein’s absence. McVay said he liked some of the things he saw from McClendon at the point of the attack in the run game, which was generally successful against the Chargers. Pass blocking reps were a different matter as McClendon struggled to stay in front of Bosa and Mack, not that Joe Noteboom faired any better on the left side of the line.
“I can remember before the ’21 season we practiced against the Raiders, we had a really tough day of practice. The guys collectively responded the right way and we were fairly decent on offense that year,” McVay said. “What I’m interested in is guys improving every single day.”
Sunday was also center Steve Avila’s first day to work on pre-snap identifications against a new defense rather than practice looks against his own team.
“His command is just exactly what I’ve been seeing,” Stafford said. “He and I were on the same page on pretty much everything we did out there today so that was a positive.”
So no, not all doom and gloom on Sunday, but definitely a day that left the Rams offense wanting more, whether all 11 starters participated or some backups had to step into the spotlight in their absence.
“Our job is to be able to get this roster ready to go and we’re going to continue to focus on that,” McVay said. “But make no mistake about it, some of the things I saw, particularly offensively, got way higher standards than what we looked like today consistently down in and down out.”
Rams receiver Puka Nacua left midway through practice and was on the sidelines with ice on his knee. Nacua took a couple of hits during the joint practice, one on a jet sweep and the other on a jump ball in the corner of the end zone. Nacua went down to the grass after the catch, then got up gingerly before walking off the field.
McVay said after practice he was not sure what happened to Nacua and had no update on his status. The Rams are off on Monday before returning to Cal Lutheran for practice on Tuesday.
