WOODLAND HILLS, Calif — The road to reaching the initial 53-man roster was a long one for Rams outside linebacker Wesley Bailey.
The least of which on that road was the passing of his mother and tumultuous upbringing that he talked about with Rams play-by-play announcer J.B. Long in this week's episode of Rams Revealed. But even since joining the Rams for OTAs, Bailey went from signing as an undrafted rookie in arguably the best defensive front ever assembled to making the 53-man roster.
Then on Monday night's against the Giants, in his second NFL game, Bailey recorded his first career sack.
"There's not a lot of words to explain it," Bailey told therams.com of what the first sack meant to him. "Just not even getting a sack, but just being out there with the guys as a whole was a blessing. Obviously, getting a sack is cool, and I'm glad I got the opportunity as well. But end of day, just being in this locker room with these guys, and obviously being around the best coaches I've been around in my life as a whole, it's just insane."
On first-and-10 from about midfield, quarterback Jameis Winston faked the handoff on play action. Bailey reached the backfield and forced Winston to step up in the pocket. Continuing his pursuit, Bailey wrestled Winston and completed his first career sack.
Like all those before, Bailey ended his first career sack with his signature celebration of making a heart with his hands to honor his late mother.
"Everything, truthful, everything," Bailey said when asked about what the trust of his coaches and teammates means to him. "Just being here, earning the respect of your teammates and your coaches is huge. Not even just as a football thing, it's as a man. Just knowing that they are out there and they trust you, knowing that I got their back and they got mine."
With outside linebacker Myles Garrett on Injured Reserve, the expectation was that everyone in the OLB room was going to have to step up in his absence. Bailey's sack was simply the exclamation point to an offseason and preseason of hard work that proves why Bailey earned a spot on the 53-man roster, and now contributing in the wake of Garrett's injury.
"What an unbelievable job Wes Bailey's done," defensive coordinator Chris Shula said. "He forced his way on the team through his performance in training camp. He's one of those guys that you're excited about him during OTAs. You're like, 'Is he really this good?' Then in training camp, he keeps doing it. Then he does it in a preseason game and you're like, 'Alright, I'm a full believer now.'"
Shula and the entire coaching staff knew the caliber of the outside linebacker room going into training camp this summer, but they still maintain an open mind to anyone who can prove themselves through their play and preparation.
Before the second preseason game, Bailey had a conversation with outside linebackers coach Joe Coniglio that lit a fire under him.
Coniglio noticed how great of a training camp Bailey had and how well he was performing in practices leading up to the preseason. After Week 1 of the preseason ended with two tackes for Bailey, Coniglio essentially told him "Wes, we've seen what you can do. Now the world has to see it. It don't mean nothing if you just do it in practice and don't do it in the game," Wesley recalled.
"He just told me, go out there and play free, and don't think about the good or the bad. Just think about just having fun and just being the best version of yourself," Bailey said.
That interaction just about sums up the relationship Coniglio has with Bailey. Coniglio sees the best in Bailey, and the entire outside linebacker room for that matter, even when things haven't always gone Bailey's way.
So when Bailey went out in Week 2 of the preseason and recorded a sack, forced fumble, four quarterback hits and five tackles, it made it hard to deny the impact Bailey could provide for the Rams with a spot on the 53-man roster.
"We're always going to let the play on the field dictate everything," Shula said. "I think as far as when you anticipate when you bring in undrafted prospects at that position, that is a really loaded and stacked position. You don't anticipate those guys butting their way in and making the roster. Anything could happen and something surprises you every single year. I think it was that second preseason game (against) the Saints, that was when he really came to life. ... You just felt him all over the field."
For Bailey to reach the 53-man roster in the first place was no small feat. He joins a very selective list of undrafted rookies to make the Rams' initial 53-man roster in their first season, alongside inside linebackers Omar Speights and Shaun Dolac, safety Jaylen McCollough, and cornerback Josh Wallace in the last three seasons alone.
But to Bailey, making the 53-man roster and getting his first sack far from means the job is finished. While he is incredibly grateful for the position he's in now, there's still much for Bailey left to prove.
"I've done absolutely nothing," Bailey said. "In terms of this whole organization, at the end of the day, I'm still a rookie. I'm just trying to get my feet under me, and to say I've made it would be insane. Whether I went out there and got zero sacks or five, I still got to prove myself every day, and you still got to earn it every day."
