LOS ANGELES — At Rams training camp, this year and in years past, position groups split up after special teams practice. The defense took over one field, the offense another as the team went about individual drills. Then both units congregated back onto the main field for scrimmage periods.

In years past, this meant a lot of first-team offense vs. second-team defense, and vice versa, with the exception of a few “Mamba” periods – first team vs. first team competitive periods that borrowed from Kobe Byrant’s “Black Mamba” nickname shortly after his 2020 death.

But this summer, head coach Sean McVay and his staff changed up the approach, with a significant increase in these Mamba periods.

“That’s the only thing we do at practice now,” McVay said in August.

McVay has long declined to play

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