Depth issue? Rams secondary has that covered…

Depth issue? Rams’ secondary has that covered
The Rams have 19 defensive backs in spring workouts after suffering a season-long rash of injuries during their Super Bowl championship season

[www.ocregister.com]

Kevin Modesti

Rams safety Quentin Lake goes through a drill during the first day of OTAs on Monday at the team’s practice facility in Thousand Oaks. The rookie from UCLA is one of 19 defensive backs who are part of spring workouts after injuries created depth issues in the team’s secondary last season. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Rams safety Quentin Lake goes through a drill during the first day of OTAs on Monday at the team’s practice facility in Thousand Oaks. The rookie from UCLA is one of 19 defensive backs who are part of spring workouts after injuries created depth issues in the team’s secondary last season. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
THOUSAND OAKS — When the Rams break into position groups across two practice fields during spring workouts, one group catches the eye and ear.

The defensive backs are the most numerous and most clamorous cohort.

“They’re really loud right now, which is standard operating procedure for OTAs,” wide receiver Cooper Kupp said. “They’re a lot louder than the receivers are. We talk silent and carry a big stick.”

There’s a lot to talk about.

During the Rams’ Super Bowl-winning season, injuries and COVID-19 positives tested and finally overwhelmed the secondary’s depth. The core group, cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams and David Long and safeties Jordan Fuller and Taylor Rapp, played together in only seven of the 21 regular-season and postseason games. Robert Rochell, Terrell Burgess, Nick Scott and Donte Deayon all were called on to make their first NFL starts, and Eric Weddle unretired temporarily to help in the playoffs.

Having enough D-back backups shouldn’t be a problem next season. The Rams re-acquired cornerback Troy Hill in a trade to replace departed free agent Darious Williams. They drafted corners Decobie Durant (South Carolina State) and Derion Kendrick (Georgia) and safeties Quentin Lake (UCLA) and Russ Yeast (Kansas State) and signed four undrafted rookies.

At Thursday’s session of OTAs (organized team activities), 17 defensive backs were in uniform, seven rotating into drills against the first-unit offense. Fuller, rehabbing after ankle surgery, and Hill weren’t on the field.

“That was kind of a position of need that we identified: Let’s get some depth at safety, at the corner spots,” Rams coach Sean McVay said this week. “I look forward to seeing those guys continue to evolve for us on the back end.”

One defensive back to watch is Rochell, who experienced both ends of the secondary’s season-long health crisis as a fourth-round draft pick from Central Arkansas. He was rushed into starting in Week 5 after Williams was hurt and made an interception in Week 6, but he was later sidelined for eight weeks with one of a series of injuries of his own.

McVay says he still thinks of Rochell as a rookie because he lost so much time to prove himself. Meanwhile, Rochell calls himself “one of the older guys” because there are so many new D-backs.

“It’s a different feeling, for sure,” said Rochell, who tries to pass along the lessons from last year’s “great learning experience.”

One undrafted rookie, 5-foot-9 safety Jairon McVea (Baylor), had a nice moment in practice Thursday when he intercepted a pass from Bryce Perkins.

Rochell is trying to nail down a prominent role in a defense that prizes the versatility he has shown. The coaches’ desire to mix and match players at a variety of spots within the traditional outside and inside corner and safety positions is another reason to have more options to choose from.

Rochell could look at the 18 other players vying for practice and playing time under defensive backs coaches Chris Shula and Jonathan Cooley and see unwanted competition. Instead, he said he sees the positive.

“It’s automatically competition,” Rochell said. “But it’s all about us being on the same (page), because (then) the competition is going to breed excellence.”

PRESCRIPTION FOR DIVERSITY

The NFL’s new Diversity in Sports Medicine Pipeline Initiative is important to the Rams’ Reggie Scott.

An NFL scholarship program for ethnic minorities gave Scott his foot in the door with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2001, and he went on to be the Rams’ VP of sports medicine and performance for the past 11 years and president of the Professional Football Athletic Trainer Society.

The program announced this week will allow students interested in sports medicine and orthopedic surgery from Charles Drew University in Willowbrook and three other historically Black medical schools to work with the Rams and seven other NFL teams this season.

Scott hopes it will help to draw more young people to his profession and allow minority students to network in the NFL.

“You need a pool of candidates,” Scott said Thursday. “We want people to see this (and) start saying, ‘I want to go into this field.’”

NOTES

Thursday’s workout was the third of the Rams’ six days of OTAs and the second open to reporters. Running back Darrell Henderson and wide receiver Van Jefferson were among players not on a field on either open day. McVay said Monday that Henderson had “a little soft-tissue thing.” Henderson was on IR with a knee injury last season. … McVay said he’s being “a little more patient with the offseason approach” because the Rams played through mid-February. The Rams are using eight of the nine weeks allowed for spring workouts. Their Super Bowl opponents, the Cincinnati Bengals, started spring workouts later than usual. No rush: Friday marks midway between the Feb. 13 Super Bowl and the Rams’ Sept. 8 season opener against the Buffalo Bills at SoFi Stadium. … New Zealand has been added to the Rams’ international marketing areas, joining Mexico, China and Australia under the NFL program that allows teams to target specific countries to expand their and the league’s worldwide fan base.