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.

Defensive coordinator Chris Shula, offensive coordinator Nate Scheelhaase and special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone all spoke about the excitement of getting real game action and how practices have done a great job simulating in-game settings. Wide receiver Puka Nacua and defensive end Aaron Donald share their differing experiences with Nacua returning to a familiar offense and Donald coming out of retirement to a new-look defense.

McVay and outslide linebacker Myles Garrett talked about the approach to Week 1 and culture of the program leading up to the season opener.

"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."

"At some point in that training camp, you're kind of sick of going good-on-good or ones-on-ones every single time and every single day. You start to kind of manipulate your defense and what you want to do with foresight of exactly the team you're going to play and whether that's the personnel that they do, whether that's the schemes that they present. Obviously, the 49ers have a lot of problems based off the personnel and the schemes and stuff that we have to be able to use our personnel and use our defenses to defend them. That might be a little bit different than when you're trying to get quote-unquote 'camp rules' for a whole season." - Shula

One of the biggest upsides of the offseason acquisitions was how competitive Rams Training Camp and practices leading up to Week 1 have been. The different one-on-one matchups all over the field have allowed for "iron to sharpen iron," as was talked about all offseason.

To a point, though, Shula and his group were ready to shift gears and prepare for a new team with different personnel, the 49ers in Week 1 serving as the first subject. Shula mentioned all the changes in the 49ers' wide receiver room and said "we'll wait and see how they deploy them, and we'll adjust accordingly," knowing there's only so much preparation he can do against his own offense in practice.

"The thing that I've enjoyed the most about our group is, despite them being a veteran group who have had a lot of continuity, they've tried to find the little ways to continue to get better. We've been pushed by our defense, day in and day out to be at our best, and I feel like it was as challenging of a camp with ones against ones throughout the majority of camp as what I've experienced." - Scheelhaase

The Rams' offense boasts a wealth of veteran knowledge, on top of returning essentially the same roster at the skill positions. Even with the continuity and veteran presence, Scheelhaase has been impressed with how open to getting better those players were during Rams Training Camp and in preparation for Week 1. That mindset was evident when Stafford said on Sunday that each team is different from Week 1 to the playoffs and playoffs to Week 1, proving that even the NFL's MVP from a season ago is looking to get even better and have even better chemistry with his teammates.

Scheelhaase also expressed the same sentiments as Shula about the value of having such great players on both sides of the ball. Due to that competitiveness, "there wasn't a day that you could show up out on our practice field and not be at your best: you'd get exposed," Scheelhaase said.

"I honestly think that the way that we practice here is so game-like that it enables you to get those types of looks that you're going to have with the groups that you're going to be using in games. So I feel like it has really been a good thing, our practice settings have really emulated game settings for us." - Ventrone

The intentionality put into the special teams portion of practices during Rams Training Camp was evident, and by bringing in Ventrone and players like long snapper and team captain Joe Cardona, among others, the special teams unit is looking to make changes and improve upon last season. Ventrone commended the culture built by McVay and general manager Les Snead to bring in guys that "love football." And that's been one of Ventrone's biggest takeaways from the offseason in his first year with the Rams, is "it's easy to be a coach whenever you have guys that love football."

"Trust and communication, that's something that coach McVay preaches all the time. Obviously last year, feeling like we were able to move really well, I feel like we we're firing on all cylinders. But this year, every play has its own entity, coach mentions (that) all the time. But (we're) trying to take that one play mindset and then also being honest with the communication of 'Hey, this is what I saw,' or hey, holding each other to the standards that we know that we're capable of." - Nacua

As Nacua mentioned, the words "trust and communication" are commonly echoed throughout the Rams organization. For an offense that has many returning players, that continuity has allowed for the trust and effective communication to continue to build, as well as accountability. As the Rams offense achieves their goal of building trust and communication from year to year, another goal they can get closer to achieving by doing that first step is reaching farther and farther in the playoffs. "There's an understanding of: the goal wasn't completed last year," Nacua said.

"Just being here, being around the guys, talking, building a relationship, me asking questions, them asking me questions. The more you're around somebody, you just naturally grow, get to know each other. Obviously translating that (to) being on the field, learning how I play, how they play, how we play off each other, I think that's important. It's been fun to be with this group." - Donald

One player that's going through an entirely unique experience is Donald. There are some familiar faces around the defense that he played with when he last played two years ago, but much of the Rams' defensive front is new to him. Similar to his "day-by-day" approach to determining whether or not he will play in Australia, Donald is working day after day to continue to get to know his teammates in the locker room by building relationships with them off the field to help with performance on the field.

Donald's biggest takeaway so far from his teammates is the level of intelligence throughout the defensive line room. "To be with these guys and out there working with them and seeing where they're at from a football standpoint and smart guys. It's definitely a fun group to be around and play with," Donald said.

"There's an absence of, you don't have a bunch of film now. There's continuity in terms of the familiarity that we have, but they got a new defensive coordinator. They have continuity with (head coach Kyle Shanahan) running the offense, and then continuity at special teams coordinator, but absolutely that's where you're relying on a lot of the rules ball. Then you get a feel for, as you kind of settle into the game, what does that really look like. But (Week 1) is unique because the film is one of the best guides, and as you get into the early parts of the season, you're kind of figuring out: what is your own identity as a team, and then what is the opponent's identity, and how can you ultimately set your players up for successful outcomes." - McVay

There's always an excitement and a uniqueness to Week 1 as it's the first time teams get a chance to play a true game in months. The preliminary drawbacks of Week 1 is there isn't film to study and teams are still looking to build their identity, as McVay mentioned.

The obvious difference for the Rams in Week 1 is the 16-hour flight to even play the game, but McVay said his team is "just excited to play." When it come to the travel, "we're not going to let it bother us anymore and I do feel good about our plan. I think our players trust the plan that we've put in place for them, and how we're going to travel, make it as seamless as possible."

"(McVay) truly sets the culture every single day by being the same person, always having that same energy and passion for coaching. His compassion for each and every one of us, checking on us, and whether it's on the field or off the field, he truly cares. You can sense it every single day, and that kind of thing is contagious." - Garrett

Although Garrett's participation has been limited in practices during Rams Training Camp and in preparation leading up to the Rams' Week 1 matchup against the 49ers, what he's truly been able to take in is the culture and how McVay sets it "every single day." Garrett's point about compassion being contagious has been especially present as he ramps back up in drills during practice, noticing how "they've been very supportive about my presence and me being here, whether I'm on the field or off the field," Garrett said.