Seeing potential
New addition DeSean Jackson likes the Rams’ energy and talent looking ahead to the 2021 season.
THOUSAND OAKS » In 13 NFL seasons, DeSean Jackson has caught passes for very good teams and very bad teams.
Knowing what makes certain teams championship contenders, he already sees the 2021 Rams in that class.
“First day I came here, man, I could see there was something different about this team. The camaraderie, the mentality, you could tell it’s something special,” Jackson, the L.A. native and former Long Beach Poly star who signed with the Rams in March, said Tuesday after the first practice of a threeday minicamp.
“I’ve been on teams where certain individuals had contract issues or personal issues or had a situation with the GM or (another) player. When you come here, you don’t feel none of that. You feel like everybody’s on the same page, everybody has one common goal. All the personal stuff, the outside world, none of that matters.”
Jackson sees it starting at the top with the coach and star players.
“(It’s) Sean McVay setting the tone, and having guys like Jalen Ramsey, Aaron Donald, Matthew Stafford, Robert Woods, Coop (Cooper Kupp), I could go on and on. The energy is great here,” Jackson said of his head coach and new teammates.
He compared these Rams to the team he joined as a second-round draft pick from Cal. Those were the 2008 Eagles coached by Andy Reid and led by Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook and Brian Dawkins. They went to the NFC championship game, only to be upset by Arizona.
“They had a demeanor,” Jackson said of the veterans. “Those guys held accountability for every player from top to bottom.”
One test of the all-forone culture Jackson sees could come in the wide receiver group, which has more hands competing for touches since Jackson, 34, and second-round draft pick
Tutu Atwell joined Kupp, Woods and Van Jefferson. (Josh Reynolds departed.)
Jackson calls it a “scary group,” and is counting on the maturity of the receivers to embrace their roles as McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford decide who gets the ball.
“In the NFL, there’s always other great guys. It’s not me, me, me,” Jackson said. “As you get older, you understand the Patriots of the world, the Steelers. They have a system, and once you understand that system, it’s kind of interchangeable. Every guy can be the next man up.”
Jackson’s comfort with the Rams is enhanced by his familiarity with the playbook, since McVay was Washington’s offensive coordinator when Jackson was there.
Said McVay of Jackson: “He’s always been a really smart player. And fortunately, because of our preexisting relationship, if I’ve changed the vernacular or verbiage on some things, (I can) say, ‘Hey, what you knew as ‘NASCAR’ is now ‘spear.’”
Said Jackson of McVay: “The only thing I can say has changed about him is he’s got a lot more smarter. And he already was smart.”
Jackson hopes the team spirit he has seen so far continues from June to January.
“It’s all pieces to the puzzle,” he said, “and if everybody plays their part, you have something special.”
Roll call
Donald is the only member of the Rams’ 90-man roster missing from the threeday “mandatory” minicamp that began Tuesday at Cal Lutheran University.
A team spokesman said it was an excused absence caused by a family matter, which also kept the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year out of the second of the two weeks’ of the Rams organized team activities (OTAs).
McVay said last week that he’s “a pretty understanding guy” if players explain absences from spring workouts in advance.