The Rams’ toughest opponent may be themselves ‘iron sharpens iron’

The most important football the Los Angeles Rams will play this summer won’t be in a joint scrimmage, televised preseason game, or their ‘Battle of LA’ against the Chargers at SoFi Stadium. 

It will happen on anonymous practice fields beneath the heavy Southern California sun, when Matthew Stafford breaks the huddle, steps to the line of scrimmage and begins scanning all of the elite talent his team now has on the other side of the ball. 

Where is two-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year winner Myles Garrett lined up?

Is All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie pressed outside?

Where is two-time Super Bowl champion Jaylen Watson lurking?

Stafford will ask himself these questions before the snap and decide if he can get the ball to All-Pro wide receivers Puka Nacua or Davante Adams before Garrett or others turns the pocket into rubble. 

“Luckily, I don’t have to block him,” Stafford joked when asked about facing Garrett in practice.

That task belongs to the Rams offensive line that will spend the entirety of training camp trying to contain one of the best pass rushers in NFL history, oh and by the way, another one might come out of retirement and join him.

There’s worse ways to prepare for Sundays. 

The Rams already had the top rated offense in the NFL last season. Now, with Stafford coming off an MVP campaign and surrounded by Nacua, Adams, Kyren Williams, and a sturdy offensive front, Los Angeles will spend every single practice testing itself against a new-look defense built to pressure the quarterback and punish mistakes. 

Garrett is the headliner, but he’s hardly alone. 

McDuffie gives the secondary a shutdown corner capable of matching any elite wide receiver stride for stride. Watson brings experience and championship pedigree. Pro-Bowl linebacker Byron Young, captain Quentin Lake, and former NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year finalist Kobie Turner give the Rams an established core that already understands the system, the standard and the urgency. 

The result of it all is a daily collision between two units that might not encounter anything better than what they have opposite them on the line of scrimmage during the regular season. 

Rams’ head coach Sean McVay said none of his starters would play in the preseason, making the two joint practices with the New Orleans Saints and Dallas Cowboys unofficial preseason games for his veterans before the regular season kicks off in Australia.

No disrespect to New Orleans or Dallas, but the toughest opponents the Rams will face this summer are already inside their own building. 

“I remember playing against him [Myles Garrett] a couple of years ago, and every single play was a chess match,” said Stafford after his first day of training camp on Monday. “Where is he? Can we run the play we want to run? He affects every play. He’s a game-changing player and a proven elite player in this league.”

Garrett affects pass protections, run schemes, quarterback timing and the emotional temperature of every snap. Stafford knows first hand that he can wreck a dropback or alter a handoff before the ball even reaches the line of scrimmage. 

And that’s the point. 

Iron sharpens iron only when both sides are willing to strike. 

“We can’t help but make each other better, as long as everybody comes out with the right attitude and the right expectation to work,” said Stafford of the Rams offense going against the Rams defense every day in practice. “Names on a roster and accolades on a piece of paper don’t win football games. Teams, players and groups win football games.”

The Rams have assembled the names. Training camp is where they must become something more.

Stafford described the goal as raising the team’s floor. The ceiling is obvious. The Rams are the only team in NFL history to have both the reigning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year on the same team. That doesn’t even include the star power throughout the roster that will make every practice feel like a controlled nuclear explosion. 

But as Stafford reminded everyone, championship teams are not built only on their best days. They are built to survive the imperfect ones. 

“If I’m a little bit off, can we still find a way to win a football game?” Stafford said. “If our defense is a little bit off, can we still find a way to win?”

As long as they’re competing against each other every day at practice, that answer is unequivocally, yes. It was on full display during a sequence on Monday when Nacua made a spectacular one-handed catch over McDuffie, only for the All-Pro cornerback to answer back a moment later by running stride for stride with Nacua and knocking away a sure-fire touchdown pass.

McVay did not view that sequence through the narrow lens of which side of the ball won the drill. He just saw elite, quality football. 

“There was a lot of really high-level football,” McVay said. “I’m not necessarily worried about who’s winning or losing individual drills.”

Stafford agreed. He said it would be more concerning if the Rams’ offense spent camp launching passes over a helpless defense.

Instead, when an elite offense is going against an elite defense, every completion must be earned. Every call must be precise. Every route must be perfect. 

And that pressure works both ways. 

Garrett, McDuffie and the Rams defense must face Stafford’s eyes, anticipation and top-notch arm talent. They must cover Nacua’s physicality, Adams’ route craft and Williams’ patience behind a veteran offensive line. They must solve an offense designed by McVay, a coach Stafford said never stops changing language, repackaging concepts and creating new answers.

The Rams may not need preseason games to learn what they are.

They will find out every practice when Stafford steps to the line, Garrett settles into his stance and the ball is snapped.

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