THOUSAND OAKS — I can’t tell you if JJ Laap and Conor McDermott will be on the Rams’ roster when the ranks thin from 90 at training camp to 53 at the season’s start.
But I can tell you they’re sure going to try.
The men stood a few yards apart on the sideline at Rams’ practice last Friday, one a just-married 31-year-old offensive lineman who, as a 6-foot-8, 305-pounder is a big guy among big guys, the former UCLA Bruin brought in a couple of days earlier because the O-line is so banged up.
The other a suntanned, 23-year-old undrafted free agent from Long Island, this 6-1, 177-pound rookie who’s fresh from a Division III national championship at SUNY Cortland. He spent much of practice Friday stretching and staying loose near wide receiver Cooper Kupp and quarterback Matthew Stafford.
The main thing the lineman McDermott and the receiver Laap have in common, of course, is that they – like many others at the Rams’ training facility at Cal Lutheran University – are interviewing for a job. A lucrative, prestigious job in a highly competitive marketplace. A dream job.
“It’s the best job in the world,” said McDermott, soaked with sweat after extra conditioning work post-practice. “You’ve got to work hard for it. Go out and earn it. Every day.”
Laap is new to the NFL but not to this. No way he or his Cortland teammate Cole Burgess would have gotten even a look with the Rams or Cincinnati Bengals, respectively, if they hadn’t put in the requisite 10,000 hours or so of effort.
“People don’t understand, this is a year-round endeavor,” Laap said. “If you’re not constantly in the weight room, getting bigger, faster, stronger, hitting the field and perfecting your craft, when you get those few opportunities, you’re not gonna be ready. They’re fleeting moments and you gotta make the most of them.”
I was out there interviewing two unlikely candidates vying to be cast as members of the Rams’ ensemble because there’s something compelling about these stories, about athletes’ ability to step into the arena where the competition is so cutthroat and the bar is so high and believe that they belong and that they will prosper. That all their work will be worth it. Against whatever odds.
McDermott – whose 2017 draft prospectus on NFL.com includes a quote from an anonymous AFC South scout proclaiming the lineman is “just not strong enough to play in our league …” – now is a proud seven-year NFL vet. He’s ping-ponged around the Northeast, with other stints with the Buffalo Bills and most recently the New England Patriots, who drafted him in the first place.
Laap is trying to become one of the rare Division III players – of whom there were six across the league last season, according to NCSA College Recruiting – to catch on: “I always knew I had the athletic ability and the talent, the question was, like, will I or will I not get the opportunity?”
If only we could bottle athletes’ ambition. Package it with their willingness to go for it, to recognize and appreciate the opportunity and then to reach up and grab it … like McDermott did on a touchdown pass in 2022.
Always love a big man TD.
Connor McDermott catches a touchdown pass from Zach Wilson for the Jets score.
@NFL pic.twitter.com/k9YYGsFxP2
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 26, 2021
As lifelong New York Jets fan, Laap was watching from his couch as that play developed.
He saw the lineman – a high school tight end and former Tennessee Mr. Basketball who started picturing an NFL career when he was put on the line for the first time as a 220-pound UCLA freshman – flash across the back of the end zone, waving his hands, free of defenders. Laap watched as quarterback Zach Wilson lobbed a pass toward McDermott, whose leaping reception proved the difference in a 26-21 victory.
You bet Laap was going to talk to McDermott about it now.
“He was like, ‘I’m from Long Island,’” McDermott said. “I said, ‘Ah, sweet.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I was at home when you caught that touchdown and we were going crazy!’ Made me feel cool for a second – and then I was like, ‘I’m old now, I’m the old guy.’”
We’ll call it experienced. Knowledgeable and known, having developed relationships with people like Ryan Wendell, the Rams’ offensive line coach who could vouch for McDermott after having worked with him in Buffalo.
So with Jonah Jackson (bruised scapula), Alaric Jackson (ankle) and Rob Havenstein (ankle) nursing injuries, the Rams reached out to McDermott, who had been staying in shape at home in his native Nashville and not at a training camp for the first time since high school.
McDermott understands the assignment: “Trying to do everything I can to get myself ready, to get off this rust, to help the team, whatever spot they need me.”
Zac Boyes connects with JJ Laap for a 65-yard TOUCHDOWN as @RedDragonPride takes back the lead 17-14!#D3fb | #WhyD3 pic.twitter.com/3nhS55eAhJ
— NCAA Division III (@NCAADIII) December 16, 2023
Laap is a walking, talking, pass-catching I-told-you-so to anyone who doubted him when he’d tell them, in high school and in college, that he would play in the NFL: “How you gonna do that, you’re going to a D3 school?”
“I don’t know,” he’d respond. “But I’m going to.”
True to his word, Cortland’s confident pass-catcher (he led the Red Dragons with 41 catches, 907 yards and six touchdowns as a senior) now is suiting up for the Rams, learning on the job, soaking up SoCal sun as well as invaluable insight from players like Kupp.
Kupp, you remember, was once a third-round draft pick out of Eastern Washington who no one could have predicted would become the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year and a Super Bowl MVP. (The Rams do have a knack for finding receivers who are unheralded – until they’re heralded.)
“He just says that what he learned when he came to the league – it was such a big deal to him, making it or not making it, so he told me, ‘Just enjoy it. Have fun with it. Don’t make it bigger than it is,’” Laap said. “Just prepare, go out there and play ball. The rest will take care of itself.”
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It’s a mantra you also hear from NBA players like former Clipper and Laker Lou Williams: “Only thing we can do is play as hard as we can, give ourselves an opportunity and live with the results.”
Or as Laap put it: “As an undrafted guy coming in, the biggest thing is just controlling what you can control.”
That’s really only one thing – the work.
Laap: “Keep pedaling the bike.” McDermott: “Keep chopping wood.”
That’s hardly glamorous advice, but it’s what has afforded these guys golden opportunities. Prepared them for it. And who knows for how many more to come?
SUNYCortland WRs JJ Laap and Cole Burgess participated at SU’s Pro Day today, after doing so last week at University at Buffalo.
The D-III national champions are grateful for the NFL exposure the success of the Red Dragons has given them, and are ready to keep working: pic.twitter.com/cKIpYffcYX
— Ashley Wenskoski (@AshleyWenskTV) March 18, 2024
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