Second-year player held out last season
BY STEVE KORTE
News-Democrat
ST. LOUIS - Offensive tackle
Alex Barron offered some advice to St. Louis Rams rookie cornerback
Tye Hill about arriving late to training camp.
"My only advice to him is: 'Be patient, man. Study your plays, work on your technique. It will come to you. It isn't going to come over night,"' Barron said. "It may come overnight to him because he is a great corner. He has a lot of good instincts and a smart player. I think he'll be OK."
Hill signed a five-year contract with the Rams on Sunday. He arrived at camp a little earlier than Barron, who was the next-to-last first-rounder signed last season.
Only Chicago Bears running back Cedric Benson took longer to sign on the dotted line.
Barron finally reached a contract accord with the Rams on Aug. 10.
"By the time I got here last year, they had already played the (Chicago) Bears and camp was about over with," Barron said. "This is like my first camp."
Barron ended up starting 11 games at right tackle for the Rams last season.
"I wasn't satisfied," Barron said of his play last season. "You can never be satisfied. You just look for the next year to get better."
Barron said he needed to work on his technique as well as his mental focus.
"The main thing is the mental stuff, the mental errors," Barron said. "I believe if you get the mental aspect of the game down, everything else will come to you. There are a lot of guys out there who are not as big or as strong as fast as the guys right beside them, but they're smart players."
Barron reported for training camp looking both slimmer and stronger.
"I knew that getting a little stronger was one of those things that could help me," Barron said. "If it came by losing weight or gaining weight, it really didn't matter to me."
Barron said he currently weighed around 305 or 306 pounds. He was listed as 320 pounds on the Rams' roster last year.
Roasting Rams
The temperature on the Rams' practice field registered 104 degrees during the team's afternoon practice.
"T his was the hottest day I think, but it was the best day," Rams coach Scott Linehan said. "I think we made the biggest strides as a team, being able to come out and work through it. We pay attention to the heat, but we make them play through it. We got a lot of work done."
Only 655 fans braved the heat to watch the Rams' practice.
"I would because I love football," Linehan said of why anybody would show up to watch practice in such heat. "The weather is pretty tough. I had my 9 year old out here today, and I think he made it 15 minutes before he went up to the office."
Linehan said the heat in St. Louis was no different than the heat he experienced last year during training camp with the Miami Dolphins.
"This is pretty similar," Linehan said, "We had a little breeze. That's the thing in Florida. You have that breeze coming off the ocean even though we're a little inland. I ran at noon today, and it was hot, but with the breeze, it's just different. You can work through this."
Linehan, who's looking to instill toughness in his team, referred to the heat as the perfect weather for training camp.
"I think it's great for camp," Linehan said. "You really kind of test your toughness and your ability to fight through things. It's not always going to be like this, but these are the times where you figure out how you can get through things. It's been great as far as I'm concerned."
Linear Mode
