LOS ANGELES – Head coach Sean McVay and wide receiver Davante Adams spoke to the media after Day 4 of Rams Training Camp presented by UNIFY Financial Credit Union, discussing Adams' approach to giving guidance to the team's young wide receivers, Jordan Whittington's progress and more.
Here are the most significant quotes and talking points from those press conferences:
"I've been super impressed with him. He's done such a great job." – McVay on Whittington
Whittington already came into his first NFL training camp last year as a rookie who was "mature beyond his years," according to McVay, and his growth throughout his second camp is evident.
McVay said Whittington has the ability to play all three receiver spots in the offense, can compete in the run game, and "I think he's really continuing to increase his route volume." McVay also praised Whittington's strength and conscientiousness.
"You can't have enough guys like that," McVay said. "We love J-Whitt."
"He's just got some natural leadership traits and communication skills where he understands what's going on from an all-22 perspective." – McVay on Nate Landman
McVay said Landman has been "awesome" in his first training camp with the Rams, praising his communication, command of the defense, ability to elevate people and feel for attacking the football.
"I think when you're talking about a guy that's at that inside linebacker position, it's key and critical," McVay said, referring to Landman's leadership traits, communication skills and all-22 lens he sees the game through. "He's done a great job leading the way for that group."
"I'm not a walking wise man where I'm just trying to drop little trinkets on him all day, but it's more whenever it comes up." – Adams
When it comes to guidance given to Nacua, Adams makes it clear it's on an as-asked-for basis – not a constant, unsolicited manner.
When it does come up, it could be a situation like "watching something on tape and they run a route maybe they didn't love or they didn't understand how to get open versus a certain coverage," according to Adams. Because he's seen a lot of double-teams, brackets and other types of coverages throughout his career, it allows him to look at coverages differently and take a deeper dive into them.
Giving that knowledge is something Adams enjoys.
"That part is actually like some of the most enjoyable parts of this thing for me, the cerebral game," Adams said. "So, me being able to talk through all this stuff with him. It's always something every day, multiple times a day, but it's hard to kind of think about it on the spot."
"We have some of those questions that come up and they ask me, 'How are you winning? What are you doing?' I just try to simplify and tell them that a lot of times I just know what they're running." – Adams
According to Adams, the best question a younger player has asked him involves coverages, because they see him win on 'choice' routes often. While they think "it's like a superhero doing it," in reality, it's a lot simpler.
"If you know what they're running and what their job is, you can use that against them to buy yourself more room, more time, more space and that equals more wins," Adams said.
Adams is seemingly learning from his younger teammates as much as they are from him – especially as they try new things and learn from their mistakes.
"It's not as much of they're going to open their mouth and say something I haven't heard but different techniques," Adams said. "The wheel's always being reinvented and you can only do so much with certain routes, but I've seen stuff from even (wide receiver) Konata (Mumpfield) since he's been out here and that's opened my eyes, not necessarily like, 'Oh my God, I've never seen that', but its him changing up his pace and working through some things, seeing some of the errors and the trial and error I guess I could say. Even over the course of three practice days, how he can transform and go and kill some of our better corners on some amazing routes. It's fun for me just watching the growth of him, talking through it, seeing somebody fail, doing something a certain way and then going out there and knocking it out of the park. I feel like a proud dad watching him out there."