The Los Angeles Rams’ secondary will be a key unit to watch during the preseason as they’ve got several young players expected to fill in as starters.
In the team’s first preseason game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Sean McVay and his coaching staff got a good look at some of their youth and there were a few standouts. One of them was Tre’Vius Hodges-Tomlinson, who drew the start at outside cornerback.
Hodges-Tomlinson had a productive senior year at TCU but was drafted late due to concerns over his size. However, he showed why those doubts looked silly against the Chargers as he made plays early in the game that seemed to get him going.
The rookie was targeted twice in the first half and said he was grateful to get those reps, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“Very thankful for them, just to get targets and show what I can do early on,” Tomlinson said postgame. “Ready for everything that comes.”
One possession that sticks out was a 3rd-and-12 situation where Hodges-Tomlinson’s college teammate Quentin Johnston was targeted right at the line to gain. Hodges-Tomlinson was able to break up the pass and later reflected on what it was like to see the play unfold:
“Man I knew it would be competitive, I knew they were going to come at me, especially understanding the down and distance and where the sticks were,” Tomlinson said. “But man, just picking up on remembering everything, how he ran routes and stuff like that, was part of it. And then understanding what type of routes I was going to get in that situation.”
The young corner followed it up with another great play in coverage where he didn’t allow Johnston the space to come down with a deep ball. The Chargers did the smart thing by targeting the size mismatch, but Hodges-Tomlinson proved ready for the challenge.
Although his physical stature will always be an issue at the NFL level, there’s no denying that Hodges-Tomlinson has the tools and mindset to be successful. There are a still a couple of preseason games left, but the cornerback is definitely making an impression.
Sean McVay believes Rams can learn a lot from loss to Chargers
The Rams ultimately lost to the Chargers due to their inability to gather stops in the first half, but McVay didn’t hang his head. Instead, he looked on the bright side and said that they had a lot to learn from the loss.
