Ex Rams WR Robert Woods Likens Texans To Former Team
Former Los Angeles Rams receiver Robert Woods, who is now with the Houston Texans, may have been feeling nostalgic recently.
Woods spoke to media following the Texans' OTA session on Friday and gave some love to both his former and current teams. He likened the Texans to how the Rams were when he arrived in 2017, the first year of the Sean McVay era.
"I think a lot of hungry players, hungry coaches,” Woods said. “I feel like this is a similar situation to when I came to L.A. with a young McVay. Some people say it was a rebuild. I feel like it was just a team buying into the culture, believing in the coach, believing in the system, and I think Coach [DeMeco] Ryans has that here. Got a lot of young players buying into this offense, into this defense, into this culture, and we can change this environment.”
Similarities between the two teams are definitely there, from a certain point of view. The Rams had missed the playoffs for 12 straight seasons prior to McVay's arrival, but he shattered expectations and won the NFC West in Year 1. The Texans' playoff drought of three seasons isn't nearly as long, but with the team struggling so much over that time, a first-year turnaround for Ryans would be just as impressive.
When Woods was with the Rams, he and Ryans saw plenty of each other. Ryans spent the previous six seasons on the division-rival San Francisco 49ers' coaching staff, including two as defensive coordinator. Now that he's in the same locker room, Woods is fully buying into the message.
“Being here, just coming here and hearing DeMeco talk for years, I guess, being in the Rams and seeing him kind of develop with the 49ers and take over that defense and give energy to that linebacker group, that whole team, and be able to see him come here and kind of feed that same energy to our team. I see from our defensive side, a lot of energy, a lot of juice spreading over to the offense,” Woods said.
Woods was a key part of the Rams' offense during his five-year tenure with them. In that time, he recorded 367 receptions for 4,626 yards and 23 touchdowns, with two 1,000-yard seasons in 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, his time in L.A. came to a premature end when he tore his ACL halfway through the 2021 season, causing him to miss the Rams' Super Bowl run. The Rams then traded to him to the Tennessee Titans last offseason, and after one subpar season with them, he signed a two-year deal with the Texans.
Even more than a year since he left the Rams, Woods clearly still has a lot of love for his old team.
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