After a long-anticipated wait, the Los Angeles Rams will finally, officially, move into their new stadium. Sean McVay came out earlier today according to Stu Jackson of therams.com and stated that scrimmages will take place this Saturday, August 22nd, and next Saturday, August 29th. This will be used to see how everyone is progressing coming out of the quarantine and training camp which will be a good way to measure talent that couldn’t be measured due to the axing of this year’s preseason.
Rams HC Sean McVay says teams' two scrimmages at Sofi Stadium will take place Aug. 22 and Aug. 29. 8/22 scrimmage will kick off around 5 p.m. PT, similar to season-opener vs. Dallas.
"We'll try to mimic and emulate a game-like setting as possible in those two opportunities."
— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) August 19, 2020
1 p.m. start for the 8/29 scrimmage.
Regarding other purposes of scrimmages, McVay said "a little bit of both" as far as more physicality and getting acclimated to new stadium.
— Stu Jackson (@StuJRams) August 19, 2020
Fox’s players to watch:
Rookie RB Cam Akers
Look for the Rams to establish some form of running back by committee approach as McVay has said, but additionally, look for Akers to steal the early down back. Ideally, Darrell Henderson can work as a 3rd down back and Malcolm Brown on the Goal Line.
Rams O-Line
It will be interesting to see the thought process behind the Rams brass’ decision to keep the OL the same as last season. Now expectations should be tempered due to it just being a scrimmage but will be exciting to see how the unit gels early.
Rookie OLB Terrell Lewis
The highly touted edge rusher out of Alabama seems to have all the hype thus far into training camp. Built like a prototypical Edge, Lewis has elite size and strength, and if healthy, could be one of the steals of the draft.
Entire Safety Group
With the additions of Terrell Burgess and Jordan Fuller, the Rams have an extremely deep Safety group led by John Johnson and Taylor Rapp. Will be interesting to see how new Rams DC Brandon Staley plugs in these talented youngsters. Obviously there are other important positions to look at (LB in particular), but these players/positions are what I will be watching.
Finally, I personally cant wait to see how the coaching staff comes together and how they feed off of each other. It has been said multiple times that Brandon Staley is basically another McVay but on defense. Should be exciting to watch!