Rams ready to put on the pads, get more physical
By Nick Wagoner
http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-ra...ms-ready-to-put-on-the-pads-get-more-physical
EARTH CITY, Mo. -- After a mid-practice skirmish with tight end Jared Cook on Sunday night, St. Louis Rams cornerback Trumaine Johnson wasn't done with the verbal part of the altercation.
Johnson and Cook continued to chirp at each other in 7-on-7 drills with Johnson yelling to Cook at one point "Pads come on in two days." Cook responded by telling Johnson,ďż˝"You say that every year, get some new material."
While both parties made it clear that all was well after the practice, the bigger takeaway was that not only are the pads coming but that the Rams are ready for them.
"Yeah, I mean I think so," coach Jeff Fisher said. "It got a little heated. It got a little competitive, but it happens. I'm surprised it took until the third practice, but we got it straightened out. So, they're fine. You know they are."
Technically, the Rams finished their "acclimation period" Sunday night and first put the pads on Monday but that was a special teams practice. Their first full-team, fully-padded practice is scheduled for Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET. It's the next step in the preseason process and an important one for the Rams as they attempt to get their offense caught up to the defense.
Throughout organized team activities and the early stages of this training camp, the defense has appeared to be well ahead of the offense. That's pretty common at this time of year, but the hope always remains that putting the pads on can neutralize things a bit, especially for the offensive line.
Whether that's the case for the Rams remains to be seen given the talent on the defensive line and the youth on the offensive side.
"We need to put pads on especially up front," Fisher said. "So they can get used to it, even the quarterbacks. The quarterbacks need to get used to throwing the ball with shoulder pads on. We'll have some good work throughout the week. We'll go Tuesday, Wednesday they're off, and then we'll do some work Thursday. Then of course Friday we're going to go over to Lindenwood and we'll have pads on so we'll get a really solid workout Friday night."
It's also important to get the pads on so the Rams can really begin to evaluate the center competition and find a starter amongst Barrett Jones, Tim Barnes and Demetrius Rhaney.
"I think it's important when you're in those situations that you don't overwork any of them," Fisher said. "We're going to rotate them and give them the reps. It's hard enough nowadays to get the reps, but you know, when we feel comfortable with it and make a decision, we'll let you know. But I'm not going to say it's Week 3�in preseason or Week 4�or whatever. You know you want to get it done as quickly as you can, but we have three guys that are capable."