Rams OL Noticing Key Difference Among Team This Offseason

The NFL Player's Association began releasing report cards for all 32 franchises each of the last two years, with anonymous player votes determining grades for the quality of each team's facilities, nutrition, and staff, among other categories.

The Los Angeles Rams ranked near the bottom of the league in terms of the quality of their nutritionist/dietician in the 2024 NFL PA report cards, which were released in February. The Rams got a "C+ grade", which ranked seventh-last in the NFL, only above the Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and Arizona Cardinals.

Their food/cafeteria ranks even lower, coming in at fifth-last in the NFL with a "D" grade. The low grade comes as the food taste ranks 31st in the NFL, and the food freshness is just 28th. They also ranked low in this category last year in 2023, finishing 26th in the NFL in food quality.

Since these report cards were released, the Rams have worked on improving these two categories for players over the offseason. The players have noticed, including center Steve Avila, who said that players in the past would turn to fast food or other alternatives if the food quality was poor.

"If you don't like the food, not a lot of people will eat here," Avila said, via ESPN's Sarah Barshop. "So I've been a part of teams [in college] where people, if they don't like the food, they'll just go to McDonald's or something."

Not only has the food quality improved, but Avila has worked with the team's nutritionist, Sebastian Zorn, to set individual health and fitness goals for himself.

"We'll sit down one-on-one with him, and he'll try to find a goal for us," Avila said, via Barshop. "People's body types are different. For me, I have a lot of muscle, so obviously I'm going to weigh more, but my body fat percentage isn't going to be as high as someone who weighs the same as me, so he definitely makes a point for that. So, right now, we're building muscle for me, and right now we're in the phase of trying to get that body fat percentage down."

Improving diet is a simple, but easy way to improve performance on the field for many players and teams. It also can make the Rams a more appealing destination for incoming players, free agents, and rookies. If the Rams see even more success, the changes in the team's nutrition in food could prove to be a significant underlying factor.

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