5 CRITICAL NFL TRAINING CAMP BATTLES PART 1

BY ADAM GREENE

This is going to be a weird NFL training camp preseason to be sure. How weird, those of us on the outside won’t even get a real glimpse until HBO debuts its latest season of Hard Knocks featuring both the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers as they prepare to play a season for which the modern NFL has no precedent.

But those same Rams and Chargers host a couple of intriguing training camp battles, as do teams around the league. I’ll roll through my picks for the five most important as we prepare to kick off what could be the strangest NFL season ever.

Starting with…

1. MALCOLM BROWN vs CAM AKERS vs DARRELL HENDERSON

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Plenty of websites and publications have already plugged Akers into the Rams’ starting backfield, even ESPN.com’s own depth chart, which has evidently decided that not only is Malcolm Brown not starting, he’s relegated to third behind Akers and Darrell Henderson Jr.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Brown spent the last three seasons as Todd Gurley’s No. 1 back up for a reason. The coaching staff trusts him to run the plays, know the protections and routes on passing downs and, most importantly, get the job done. Last season Brown scored five touchdowns on the ground and, since Sean McVay took over as head coach, has averaged 4.16 yards per carry. That’s as a reserve, with no effort at all to get him into the rhythm of the offense.

Last year the Rams thought Brown was so valuable (and this was before the extent of Gurley’s decline was obvious) they matched an RFA offer from the Detroit Lions to keep his services.

Akers could very well be a dynamic addition to Los Angeles’ offense and earn the starting job at some point, but it’s not going to be handed to him. On paper, Henderson should have slid Brown down the depth chart last season after rushing for 1,909 yards and 22 touchdowns as a junior at Memphis. He had a total of 39 carries last season and never found the end zone.

When you add in the fact that there was no offseason program to speak of, no OTAs, mini camps (rookie or otherwise) and Akers is further behind now than any rookie RB in team history. The Rams haven’t invested much in any of these players and McVay will absolutely start the best one, so there’s no impetus to rush Akers out there. Or Henderson for that matter. The team will pay a little over $2 million to all three combined in 2020.

McVay’s trust in Brown, and his solid performance in years past, will do a lot to put him on the field. As excited as people are about Akers, don’t be shocked to see him riding the pine as the season begins.

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