{"id":277230,"date":"2025-08-10T15:40:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/277230\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:40:16","slug":"sean-mcvay-pleased-with-what-he-saw-from-day-3-rookie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/277230\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean McVay ‘pleased’ with what he saw from Day 3 rookie"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Rams<\/a>‘ first preseason game of the 2025 season ended with a victory<\/a>. L.A. beat the Dallas Cowboys<\/a> 31-21 behind the arm of Stetson Bennett, the legs of Blake Corum and a stout defensive showing in the first half.<\/p>\n

But the box score doesn’t really matter in exhibition games. What teams care about more is how their young players perform on the field, which will help shape their roles during the regular season.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

One player (of many) that stood out to Rams head coach Sean McVay was fifth-round linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. The Ole Miss<\/a> product tallied four tackles during his time on the field following a solid offseason despite missing some practice time. Paul Jr.’s return to the field was a positive sign for the Rams’ head coach.<\/p>\n

“It’s been great to get \u2018Pooh\u2019 back out there,” McVay said. “He’s a running-hit type of guy. I thought you felt his presence and you felt his range out there. He missed a little bit of time with a soft tissue injury, but it was awesome to be able to get him going today. He\u2019s got a good game day demeanor. I was pleased with what I saw from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Jr. could have an early role in the Rams’ defense given the uncertainty around the inside linebacker position. He drew comparisons to San Francisco 49ers star linebacker Fred Warner<\/a> during the pre-draft process after Paul Jr. finished his college career with 225 combined tackles, 11 tackles for a loss and 9.5 sacks in 40 games.<\/p>\n

Week 1 of the preseason was the Rams’ first glimpse of what Paul Jr. could be for their defense, and he’s already earned praise for McVay.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Rams Wire: Rams preseason: Sean McVay ‘pleased’ with Day 3 rookie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Rams‘ first preseason game of the 2025 season ended with a victory. L.A. beat the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[4084,53639,257,53640,7,592,1014,58,2444,2611,6,424,252,3307,471],"class_list":{"0":"post-277230","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-blake-corum","9":"tag-chris-quotpoohquot-paul-jr","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-exhibition-games","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-fred-warner","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-rams","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesrams","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-rams","20":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","21":"tag-sean-mcvay","22":"tag-stetson-bennett"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115005228551183190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}