Trent McDuffie is already finding out what Rams training camp is going to look like on the defensive side: plenty of pain, and not much breathing room.
The Los Angeles Rams cornerback has been thrown straight into the fire, and it didn’t take long for Davante Adams to make the point. Even in practice, covering Adams is no easy assignment. McDuffie himself has put Adams in his top three toughest receiver matchups, alongside Ja’Marr Chase and Tyreek Hill.
That list says plenty. McDuffie entered the league in 2022, weeks after Hill - a player who might have been his teammate - was traded to Miami.
Back in Kansas City, he never had to deal with Hill in camp. His toughest wideout work there came against Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice, two good young receivers who still don’t sit in Adams’ tier.
Now the challenge is different. McDuffie is trying to hang with Adams while Matthew Stafford is delivering the football, and the result is the kind of practice rep that makes a cornerback earn every inch. One look at the throw and the route says it all: Stafford releases it, Adams tracks it to the back corner, and the catch comes together with one hand and perfect timing for a touchdown.
McDuffie is doing his part. The coverage is tight, the body positioning is there, and Adams is still wearing him like a second jersey. That’s the problem for defensive backs: it can all look sound until Adams gets a free hand and even a sliver of space.
The only silver lining for McDuffie is that this won’t be a regular-season headache anymore. When Adams was in Las Vegas, McDuffie got two AFC West shots at him every year during his first two-and-a-half seasons. That part is gone.
What isn’t gone is the daily grind in Rams camp, where McDuffie has to survive these matchups over and over again. And so far, he hasn’t even shown up in the training-camp clips involving Puka Nacua.
That’s another problem waiting in the wings. As the source pointed out: “Fun stuff.
Just ask Emmanuel Forbes.”
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