WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. — Week 1 of the regular season has arrived, with the Rams officially entering their practice cadence on Sunday heading into Thursday's matchup with the 49ers in Australia. Head coach Sean McVay described how Sunday's practice feels like a normal Wednesday in their weekly schedule, and how they'll have three practice days before boarding the plane on Tuesday night to play in Melbourne on Thursday at 5:35 p.m. PT on Netflix.
McVay detailed the key factors to deciding their travel schedule, and quarterback Matthew Stafford and Davante Adams recognized the familiar faces on offense from last season and how they approach that continuity heading into the 2026 season.
"That's what will always consistently drive our decision-making processes is with the players first and foremost at the forefront of our minds in every decision that we make and keeping guys in their normal rhythm and routine." - McVay
The Rams are treating the game in Australia like any other by aiming to keep their same "rhythm and routine" as a normal game-week cadence. At the end of the day, the travel plans aren't as important to McVay as keeping that familiar routine and believing in the plan made out for them.
Ultimately, McVay and the staff feel like they're doing what they think is best, and that's all that matters. "The most important thing to me is they know that everything we do is what we think is best," McVay said. "It doesn't mean that we think we're right and a different approach is wrong. It's just what we think is best is based on the things that we've done (in the past) and what we've learned over our time here."
"The team that we were at the end of the season last year wasn't the team that we were Week 1, both in personnel, execution, all that. You develop yourself as you go. You try to continue to get better and better. I feel like we've had a really solid offseason, a really nice, strong training camp on both sides of the ball. That puts you in a position to have confidence going into the season that you understand what your team's about. Then, inevitably, things happen and you've got to morph and change and find the ways to be successful." - Stafford
The offensive side of the ball looks very similar for the Rams, bringing back the vast majority of their contributors from a season ago. Despite it being "exciting having a lot of the same faces back," Stafford recognizes that the team will look different from Week 1 to the playoffs, and notably from last season's playoffs to this season's Week 1.
More important than the similarity for Stafford is how Los Angeles will handle making changes when necessary. Stafford, though, has "no doubt that we're a strong group when it comes being able to figure out things if we need to."
"We have basically the same room as last year which helps, having more time together. Just like how a quarterback and receiver work together, we work together out there in the run game, route combination. Being able to be familiar with the way a guy moves or his body language in the run game, that helps a lot. (We're) getting more time together." - Adams
One specific group with much continuity is the wide receiver room, bringing back all six wide outs from last year's initial 53-man roster to this season's 53-man roster, with the addition of rookie CJ Daniels this time around.
That continuity has led to both on-the-field synchronicity and off-the-field confidence and bond to a point where Adams deems the wide receiver room as "the most locked in groups that are part of too."
