Rams Training Camp Takeaways: Optimism Abounds Even After Aaron Donald Retirement

Healthy veterans and a burgeoning crop of young players make Los Angeles a team that rolls into 2024 with massive upside.

A healthy Matthew Stafford showed why the Rams are a team to be reckoned with in the NFC this season. / Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles Rams have a new, unique training camp set on the idyllic campus of Loyola Marymount, with one practice field as center stage, and another in the outfield of a baseball diamond. The setup allows for efficiency, with everything centrally located, and brand-new dorms to stay in. Oh, and the team here should be pretty good, too …

• The overall energy with the Rams is really, really good, and my sense is that’s the momentum they’re carrying over from last season’s surprise playoff appearance—a year in which they carried $75 million in dead cap money, dealt off Jalen Ramsey, and had bouts with injuries to Cooper Kupp and Matthew Stafford (though the injury issues weren’t nearly as bad as the year before). This team is younger, and faster, and optimism about its first three picks in this year’s draft only adds to all the excitement over last year’s bumper crop. The Rams should be really good in 2024. Stafford and Kupp, in particular, look healthy and ready to roll, perhaps energized by the renewal of the roster.

• That, of course, brings you to the guy who’s not here, Aaron Donald, one of the greatest players of all-time. The harsh reality is that the Rams aren’t going to replace Donald with one guy. So the resources sunk into the defensive front are going to have to pay dividends. The good news is that Kobie Turner’s potential as an interior rusher was clear last year, Byron Young has had a really strong offseason coming back, and top-50 picks Jared Verse and Braden Fiske have hit the ground running. It’s early, of course. But the early signs are that, while there’s obviously no Donald, the pass rush should be a strength.

Donald announced his retirement after the 2023 NFL season, leaving the Rams with a glaring hole on the defensive front. / Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin /

• Another area where the Rams made a massive investment was the offensive line, with big-money guards Kevin Dotson and Jonah Jackson now on hand. But those additions did mean moving second-year man Steve Avila, the 36th pick in the 2023 draft, inside to center. And so far, so good on the move. Avila was one of the team’s strongest workers through the offseason program and, though the pads haven’t come on yet, has hit the ground running in camp.

• Corner is a very real question for the defense, as new coordinator Chris Shula settles in as the play-caller. Derion Kendrick tore his ACL earlier in the week, and Darious Williams, who’s back in L.A. after two years in Jacksonville, suffered a hamstring injury when I was out there at practice on Thursday. I wouldn’t rule out the team bringing in reinforcements in the coming week. Conversely, the team’s feeling better about where it stands at safety with the emergence of third-year vet Quentin Lake, and his experience as a nickel corner should help the team patch the new holes.

• Keep buying Puka Nacua stock. With Kupp healthier this offseason, Nacua really attacked this offseason, and slimmed down a bit (he’s got a naturally big build) to try and get a little faster and more agile. His rookie year (105 catches, 1,486 yards, six touchdowns) is a tough act to follow. But he’s improved over the past six months, for sure.