The Los Angeles Rams began their nine-week 2017 offseason workout and conditioning program Monday at California Lutheran University, with players, coaches and team staff members wearing T-shirts with “We not me” on the back.
“It’s always going to be about the team,” first-year coach Sean McVay said.
“All the decisions that we want to make are going to be from a standpoint of what’s in the best interest of the team, before any personal agendas and that’s what we want to embody as a coaching staff and with our players as well.”
McVay described the T-shirts as “a collective idea.”
The initial two-week phase of the workout program is limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation under terms of the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
“Our whole coaching staff was really anxious to get to this day,” said McVay, who was the Washington Redskins offensive coordinator the past three seasons.
“What Phase 1 represents for us is a chance to meet with our players and then they’ll get familiar with our strength and conditioning staff. It’s exclusively meetings for us as coaches and then a lot of strength and conditioning, getting themselves ready for Phase 2.
But really the emphasis for us right now is on learning our systems and establishing our identity. We feel like today was a good start for us.”
During the three-week second phase, on-field workouts may include individual player instruction, drills and separate offensive and defensive team practices. Live contact and team offense versus team defense drills are not permitted.
Because the Rams have a new coach, they were allowed to start their workout program two weeks earlier than the rest of the league. The Rams chose to start their workout program one week earlier.
Quarterback Jared Goff said “there’s some really good, new energy here.”
“Coach McVay and the rest of his staff have done a great job exuding that energy and really letting us feel it,” said Goff, the first player chosen in the 2016 draft who was 0-7 as a starter.
“I think it’s really a fresh start for a lot of people. I think it’s a really good feeling. Just freshness is the best way to describe it.”
Linebacker Alec Ogletree described McVay as “very energetic.”
“He’s a guy that brings a lot of emotion and he wanted to set a different culture for us,” Ogletree said. “I felt like, for day one, coming in as a new head coach, he did a great job of addressing the team and letting us know what he expects from us and what we should expect from him.”
