Rams training camp brings ‘excitement’

Los Angeles, CA (News4usonline) – The Los Angeles Rams go into training camp this season as the team most likely to play as Super Bowl LXI favorites. That’s not a far stretch of the imagination. 

The Rams have the NFL’s reigning MVP in quarterback Matthew Stafford. They picked up the league’s Defensive Player of the Year in edge rusher Myles Garrett in the offseason. 

That’s not to mention that the Rams also picked up a premier cornerback tandem inTrent McDuffie and Jaylen Watkins from the Kansas City Chiefs. That’s like stacking chips.  

With Stafford leading the charge, the Rams came within a whisper of advancing to the Super Bowl last season. The Rams were a good team last season. Very good. This year, the additions of Garrett, McDuffie and Watkins and the return of an offense that was ranked No. 1 in the NFL, gives the Rams an aura of dominance. 

They now are the hunted. And if Aaron Donald decides to unretire and suit up again, well…this year’s version of the Los Angeles Rams could be an all-timer. But that would be getting far ahead of ourselves. 

Like the other 31 teams in the league, the Rams and their players have to go through rigors of training camp and sort out their personnel makeup for the season. 

Then the fun part begins, and that’s engaging in competition. Each week will present its own unique challenges. The greatness of a team is not measured in preseason hyperbole. 

It is surviving and making it through the 17-game season one quarter and one contest at a time. And hopefully, healthy. Rams head coach Sean McVay knows this to be true.

McVay also knows that the greatness makeup of a team comes from weathering storms throughout the season and continuing to have a sense of being unified despite obstacles that may come their way.  

“We’ve got to come together as a team,” McVay said. “We’ve got to stay humble. There’s a lot of stuff in the midst of the journey that we don’t control, but I think our ability to be connected, to be courageous, to handle the storms when they do come up and be inside out more than ever before is going to be really important. But we’re not going to allow the outside expectations to change the way that we approach every day with the way that we work, the way that we enjoy it, and have the appropriate mindset and energy. And that’s something that I think is really important for us to represent and I think that’s more felt than anything else.”  

This is McVay’s 10th season leading the Rams as head coach. The results have been impressive. McVay has compiled a 61 percent winning record. He’s coached the Rams to two Super Bowls. He’s won a championship. 

As the head man leading the Rams, McVay brings an effusive energy to his ballclub that is contagious. The Rams play loose. They play hard. They play tough and they play with an edgy mojo that filters down directly from McVay. 

So, it is no surprise that as he enters a decade of leading a team into training camp again that the novelty of excitement has not gone stale for McVay.    

“I can’t believe year 10. I feel really fortunate, humbled and blessed to be in this situation and I think grateful that you have a genuine excitement about it,” said McVay. 

“I think a lot of the things that have taken place in my life, which I’ve shared with you guys, getting married and having two little boys changes your heart. And a lot of the things that I think make you a good parent at home are what make you a good coach in terms of the connection, the patience, most importantly building and developing relationships and modeling the way,” McVay went on to say. 

In speaking about how excited he is about training camp getting underway, McVay tempered his enthusiasm when Donald entered the conversation between the Rams head coach and reporters. Donald was a three-time Defensive Player of the Year winner and led the Rams to a victory against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI.

“I’m sure everybody’s wondering about Aaron,” McVay remarked. “He is going through his process and he is putting himself in a position to make a decision and he’s earned the right to be able to do that. For those of you guys that do know Aaron, he’s very diligent. Anything that he does, he does all in so he’s going through a very strict regimen and process that was similar to what he did when he played, see how his body responds and feels.” 

Cover Photo/Lead Image: Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams at the team’s 2025 training camp at Loyola Marymount University. Photo credit: Mark Hammond/Neews4usonline