Trent McDuffie is one of the few new faces of the Los Angeles Rams this season, coming over in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs. He won two Super Bowls with Andy Reid and the Chiefs, but he’s embarking on a new chapter of his career back home in Southern California.
With this being his first training camp as a member of the Rams, he’s noticed some differences between how each team structures its camp. McDuffie described the biggest difference he’s seen, talking about the extra recovery time players get in Los Angeles – which is a major benefit.
“I think the biggest thing over here is the recovery time that they like to get,” McDuffie said this week. “I think that's really big, especially now in training camp where it's longer days. We're out
here practicing hard. You [need to] give yourself a second to recover your body, recover your mind.”
What makes the additional recovery time even better is that it gives players the opportunity to hang out together and build relationships. That’s important for a newcomer like McDuffie, who’s rooming with a new teammate, Quentin Lake, and an old one in Jaylen Watson.
“My favorite thing about that has been the DBs get together and play games,” he said. “We were playing cards the other night and really getting to know each other. I think a very big aspect of being a great team is knowing who you're playing with so not only are you recovering your body and your mind, but we're generally spending time with each other, which to me is special, especially being new here.”
McDuffie appreciates the way McVay structures practice schedules, just as Davante Adams does. Training camp is a grind and having some lighter days or even a day off between blocks helps players reload and stay fresh.
“It is different,” McDuffie said of the Rams’ practice schedule. “It is still hard, especially when you come out here to practice and guys are really giving it their all. I think the biggest thing is that he allows you to give yourself that mental space to unload and get away from football for a minor second. Not in the sense of we're going to leave and go do our own thing but we practice and we don't have meetings afterwards. It's come get your recovery, eat, spend time with the guys, and I think that's really cool from a team bonding aspect of how they do things around here.”
Lake spoke recently about how he, McDuffie and Watson have been bonding after practice, spending quality time together talking about techniques on the field and life off it. In a college-like setting at LMU, that’s much easier, especially with how player-friendly McVay’s schedule is.
This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Trent McDuffie shares biggest difference between Rams and Chiefs training camps
