LOS ANGELES — Quentin Lake spoke with his new teammates, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson, huddled together in their shared dorm room Monday night at Loyola Marymount, a “gritty” feeling akin to high school or college, he said.
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Those late-night talks between the two-time Rams captain and the pair of former Kansas City Chiefs cornerbacks during the last hours of Day 2 might have inspired communication tactics for the season to come. McDuffie and Watson, who won two Super Bowl titles while with the Chiefs, told Lake about their prominence of using hand signals during their time together playing for Kansas City coach Andy Reid.
Their information, how they communicated amid the noise of gameday, piqued Lake’s interest.
“I’m like, “Man, that’s a good idea,’” Lake said Tuesday afternoon after the Rams’ Day 3 practice and jog through. “It’s not that we don’t do it, but they had an emphasis on it. I was like, ‘Hey, if you guys want to do it, let’s do it.’”
During Tuesday’s practice, the trio kept on “repping it and repping it,” Lake said, adding that as a leader of the defensive operation entering his fifth season on the Rams, his goal with his new teammates in the secondary was to make them comfortable, listening and learning from his teammates-turned-roommates for training camp. McDuffie may still be the shaved-down-head freshman that Lake remembers from high school practices at Mater Dei, when they played together on the CIF Southern Section powerhouse for a season, but now they share a field and pulse as likely cornerstones of Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula’s defense.
As practice trailed Tuesday afternoon, Lake began to notice that the hand signals the trio developed were already seeping into the rest of the defense.
“There are two guys that came in and they were like, ‘Man, this is what we did, this is what was successful,’” Lake said. “I’m like, ‘OK, we can – I can use that, and I can share with everybody else.’ And I’m looking out on the field and everybody’s doing it. (Linebacker Nate Landman is) doing it. (Safety) Kam Curl’s doing it. I’m doing it. J-Watson’s doing it. Trent’s doing it. We’re just trying to take our game to the next level.”
Rams head coach Sean McVay recognizes the communication traits from Lake, helping build a bridge for Watson and McDuffie. There’s a reason the 27-year-old safety has been voted by his peers as a captain time after time, McVay added.
When asked how Lake is helping the likes of McDuffie and Watson acclimate to the Rams’ culture and defense, McVay pointed to the UCLA alumnus’ “vibe and demeanor.”
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“(Lake is) able to share, impart some wisdom on, ‘All right, this is how we’re doing it now, this is what we did before.’” McVay said. “But he’s also constantly curious as well. Those guys have a lot of cool experiences that they’ve had in Kansas City, but there’s a reason that (Lake has) been voted captain.”
Offensive line consistency
Guard Kevin Dotson said starting training camp with continuity on the offensive line – outside of Rob Havenstein’s retirement – has allowed the position group to avoid the awkward “new friends” phase and go directly into “higher-level things.”
“That’s what a lot of people don’t understand about the offensive line,” Dotson said. “The fact that we have all the offensive linemen back, it’s just that continuity of offensive line is probably the most important thing for an offensive line. … Sometimes, that first interaction can be you don’t know how to start it. You get a little awkward, blah, blah, blah. But (when) we came back, it was like the end of last year. We’re already there.”
‘Nothing imminent’ on Aaron Donald
When it comes to Aaron Donald watch, waiting to learn whether he will return to the NFL to join Myles Garrett in the Rams’ potentially devastating pass rush, McVay said he’s had conversations with him, but the three-time Defensive Player of the Year has not decided if he will come back from his 2024 retirement.
“We have kept in contact,” McVay said, updating the media on Donald’s potential return for the first time since Tuesday. “He’s feeling good. His training is going really well. But no new news on the front of like any imminent decision on whether he’s going to play or not.”
Notes
Offensive lineman Justin Dedich, who is on the non-football injury list to begin training camp and is the probable next man up at guard, suffered a hand injury around July 4, McVay said. “He had a hand accident around the 4th of July, and so that’s kind of what’s keeping him out for now,” McVay said. …
McVay said outside linebacker Byron Young (right knee) is being managed similarly to quarterback Matthew Stafford during training camp and will practice Wednesday after he did not practice Monday or Tuesday. “The goal is, let’s be proactive instead of reactive,” McVay said. “We’ve always looked at him as a guy that kind of fits in that Tier 1 category, similar to what we do with Matthew, and so he’ll be out here practicing and be ready to go tomorrow.”
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