LOS ANGELES — My 13th camp visit is here, on the picturesque campus of Loyola Marymount. The Rams were holding their final full training camp practice here. They’ll go back to their home facility in Woodland Hills after a Monday walkthrough. Here’s what I saw out there …
• The excitement over the 32-year-old Davante Adams here is palpable. The Rams see a guy who looks both physically and mentally refreshed after a tough couple of years. Will he hit a wall because of his age? The bet here is that because he’s a loose, flexible athlete with great football IQ, the guy who had 198 yards and two touchdowns for the Jets against the Jaguars last December is still there. Adams also, in certain ways, completes the set of receivers for the Rams, with powerful slot Puka Nacua and pocket-rocket Tutu Atwell bringing vastly different things to the table. Depth behind those guys is good, too. Jordan Whittington flashed as a rookie last year when Nacua went down, is a tough, strong special-teamer, and has shown an ability to separate in camp. And rookie Konata Mumpfield, from Pitt, has had a really nice summer, too.
• If there’s one thing that could undermine an otherwise loaded offense, it might be the health of tackle Alaric Jackson. The Rams feel good about where he is, and there’s some recent history of guys coming back successfully from blood clots, but it’s a scary thing for anyone to deal with. If he’s good on that count, the team thinks his best football is ahead of him. And the line should be excellent, with Coleman Shelton at center, Rob Havenstein at right tackle, and Steve Avila and Kevin Dotson at guard. From there, the lingering offensive questions concern depth. Blake Corum, after taking some time to get up to speed as a rookie, looks, stylistically, like a nice match to back up Kyren Williams, but is being pushed by rookie Jarquez Hunter, a bigger, thicker, more downhill-type of back than the other two. And there’s great competition at tight end behind Tyler Higbee, with Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen (who had a fantastic day Sunday) and rookie Terrance Ferguson battling for snaps.
• The defensive front might be the best in football. Jared Verse and Byron Young give the unit real strength on the edges, and rookie Josaiah Stewart is positioned to back them up. And the hope is that the Rams can get Braden Fiske and Kobie Turner attacking upfield more, with steady veteran nose Poona Ford capable of eating up blockers and taking hits off of them. Second-year man Tyler Davis and rookie Ty Hamilton should be part of the equation as well, as rotational run stoppers. Overall, the massive investment the Rams are making post–Aaron Donald in their front—one that showed up in the playoffs in a big way—is paying off.
• Corner was a big question mark last year, and there were a ton of moving parts during the year. So the hope is that the group will be the team’s most improved spot. Ahkello Witherspoon, Darious Williams, Cobie Durant and Emmanuel Forbes Jr. are all back, with Witherspoon serving as the leader and steadying presence, Williams bringing a ton of experience, and Durant and Forbes carrying plenty of upside. Forbes, in particular, has looked like he’s getting his confidence back, though he’ll have to stay healthy (a hamstring injury kept him out of the practice I attended).
• The Rams have pretty high hopes for the team, and rightfully so—they came closest of anyone to beating the Eagles in the playoffs, and did it with a very young team. Now, Matthew Stafford’s a huge key to that, and he’s missed all of camp to this point with back soreness. My understanding is that the Rams aren’t going to push him out there until he’s truly all the way back physically, and I didn’t sense a ton of concern that there’s any long-ranging issue here. And, yes, the team does really like backup Jimmy Garoppolo, who turned down more money to return to the Rams as a backup, and who was a very real Plan C, if the Rams had traded Stafford in the offseason and failed to land Aaron Rodgers. In fact, they view him as a starting-caliber player. But based on where Los Angeles’s goal lay in 2025, having Stafford out there for the full season is important. So, positioning him to get to the finish as healthy as possible is the priority, taking precedence over camp reps. We’ll see how the 37-year-old, who’s continued to play phenomenally but has gotten pretty beat up over the years, holds up.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rams Training Camp 2025: High Hopes for Davante Adams in Los Angeles.