IRVINE, Calif. -- The Los Angeles Rams navigated through 11-on-11 drills on Monday afternoon, and new wide receiver Sammy Watkins just watched, helmet by his side, No. 2 jersey on his back. He took part only in individual drills, then deliberately ran routes with Jared Goff after the rest of his teammates came off the field.
Watkins estimated that it would take him "maybe a week and a half" to get a real understanding of this new offense.
"Just take it slow, one day at a time," Watkins said after practice. "I'm not going to learn everything in a day. I'm not going to look like Sammy Watkins in three days."
Watkins was informed on Thursday night, after the Bills' first preseason game, that he had been traded for the first time. The Rams announced the deal on Friday morning -- one that sent cornerback E.J. Gaines and a 2018 second-round pick to Buffalo -- and Watkins joined his teammates at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Saturday, three hours before they would face the Dallas Cowboys.
The Rams wanted to give Watkins a chance to settle in, so they kept his workload light on Monday. Rams coach Sean McVay will work him in more heavily on Tuesday and hopes to get him "a handful of snaps" in Saturday's preseason game, on the road against the Oakland Raiders at 7 p.m. PT.
"We want to be mindful of the fact that he's way behind in terms of the installation and getting familiar with our verbiage and things like that," McVay said. "There is a little bit of carryover from what he was doing in Buffalo with [offensive coordinator Rick] Dennison, because it's kind of the verbiage and the foundation of it. There are some similarities with it. It won't be quite as steep, but we're really just getting him acclimated."
A healthy Watkins gives the Rams the vertical target they're missing; a dynamic outside threat who can take the top off defensive coverages and open more room for the likes of Robert Woods, Cooper Kupp and Tavon Austin. The latter continues to be held out with a hamstring injury.
Watkins starred at Clemson for three years, then was drafted fourth overall by the Bills. Watkins has shown flashes of dynamic talent in the NFL, but injuries have continually hindered him. He had hip surgery at the end of his rookie season in 2014, dealt with a handful of smaller ailments in 2015 and later underwent two foot surgeries, in the spring of 2016 and in January of 2017.
But Watkins said Saturday that he is "100 percent healthy" and that "the foot thing is out the door," which he proved while making an early impact in Thursday's preseason game.
Now he needs to grasp McVay's offense.
"I'm just trying to dissect the plays," said Watkins, who's wearing his number from Clemson but will eventually have to switch to double digits. "That's the biggest thing, the formations. It's a lot of things that's going on. But once I learn the plays and the formations, I can go out there and have fun, come together with the team."
Watkins will room with Woods, his teammate in Buffalo the past three years, for the next four days, until the Rams pack up their stuff at UC Irvine. Woods' advice was to focus on concepts first, then get to the formations and bring them all together. By the end of Monday's practice, Woods still hadn't met with his fellow receivers and had barely even spoken to Goff. Most of his time has been spent with Eric Yarber and Zac Taylor, the Rams' two wide receiver coaches.
He's still a little jet-lagged.
"We're three hours behind, so I'm just trying to catch up," Watkins said. "Give me a week or so. I'll be all right."