ST. JOSEPH, Mo. — Grinning final month, Louis Rees-Zammit shared simply how a lot he needed to expertise his first full-contact hit as an NFL participant. Rees-Zammit, the Welsh former rugby star who joined the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs in March, knew he was just some days away from his first coaching camp apply in full pads.
“I can’t wait to see the distinction,” Rees-Zammit stated.
His true “welcome to the NFL” second, when the depth stage stunned him, got here the morning of July 28, which was the Chiefs’ third consecutive padded apply. Rees-Zammit’s one-on-one drill that day was one each operating again within the NFL has needed to endure: The blitzing linebacker or security charging into the backfield, the lone task for the operating again is to forestall the defender from reaching the quarterback.
Throughout from Rees-Zammit on the sphere was linebacker Cole Christiansen, who like Rees-Zammit is attempting to earn one of many closing spots on the Chiefs’ preliminary 53-man roster. With quarterback Patrick Mahomes holding the ball within the pocket, Christiansen attacked from the B hole. Upon affect, Rees-Zammit misplaced his leverage and discovered simply how badly he may lose a pass-blocking rep. Christiansen de-cleated Rees-Zammit.
“It’s very bodily,” Rees-Zammit stated after Wednesday’s apply. “I’ve needed to be taught to adapt and decrease my physique top. In rugby, that’s not an excessive amount of of a giant deal. The blows you are taking listed here are fairly large. To be trustworthy with you, it’s a totally completely different sport.
“I’ve by no means needed to move defend earlier than. It’s really unlawful in rugby. I’ve to attempt to choose it up as shortly as potential. I’m not going to be wonderful to begin with.”
#Chiefs Louis Rees-Zammit engaged on move safety throughout Sunday’s coaching camp apply pic.twitter.com/BLjhyi0ZLC
— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladdtv) July 28, 2024
Reps just like the one towards Christiansen, had been to be anticipated, although. No newcomer on the Chiefs’ 91-man roster is as new to the game as Rees-Zammit, 23, who will play within the first organized soccer sport of his life Saturday when the Chiefs face the Jacksonville Jaguars in a preseason opener.
For Rees-Zammit, Saturday’s sport — and coaching camp, for that matter — is about exhibiting the Chiefs how briskly he can be taught and enhance with every new expertise on a soccer discipline.
Simply seconds after his most embarrassing second in camp, Rees-Zammit stood up, wiped the sweat from his eyes and received again in his two-point stance. When the following one-on-one rep started — towards Christiansen once more — Rees-Zammit did a greater job of withstanding his teammate’s power, pushing him away from Mahomes.
“The transition’s been improbable for him,” Chiefs operating again Isiah Pacheco stated of Rees-Zammit. “Being that participant that may be a (chief) within the (operating backs) room, (I’m) placing in his ear, ‘Simply preserve working arduous, preserve ending.’”
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With simply three exhibition video games earlier than Aug. 27, the NFL’s annual cutdown day, Rees-Zammit will try to perform with the Chiefs what he did in rugby: Excel quicker than anybody anticipated.
At 18, he signed his first skilled contract with Gloucester, changing into the membership’s youngest-ever Premiership participant. Rees-Zammit was an affect participant as a rookie, too. Not solely was he Gloucester’s youngest European strive scorer in 2019, however he additionally scored 12 tries in 15 appearances, bettering at a fast tempo that doesn’t occur typically in skilled rugby. His most simple trait as one of many rising wingers in world rugby was his elite pace, which led to his nickname Rees-Lightning.
Followers gravitated to Rees-Zammit due to his assured taking part in model, his appears and his urge for food to be a global superstar at a younger age.
In 2021, Rees-Zammit helped lead Wales, his dwelling nation, to win the Six Nations championship. He produced his biggest spotlight throughout the occasion, too, a clutch, game-winning strive that featured loads of his abilities — pace, hand-eye coordination and daring creativity. Within the closing minutes of a highway match towards Scotland, Rees-Zammit caught the ball on the perimeter of the sphere and knew he had only one defender to beat. A sprinting Rees-Zammit chipped the ball over the defender together with his proper foot and sprinted previous him to catch the ball off the primary bounce for the match-winning rating.
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In 32 worldwide appearances for Wales, he scored 14 tries.
A number of months after the Six Nations event, Rees-Zammit acquired one of many biggest honors within the sport: He was named to the British & Irish Lions squad — that includes gamers from England, Wales, Scotland and Eire. However throughout his offseason in 2022, he started his plans to modify sports activities, working in Atlanta with longtime efficiency coach Chip Smith, who has educated greater than 3,000 skilled athletes, in hopes of changing into a viable NFL participant.
“I achieved every little thing I needed to in rugby,” Rees-Zammit stated in early Could. “I’ve at all times needed to reside in America. This was the right time to attempt to make it within the NFL and reside over right here.”
The winner of the #GuinnessSixNations Attempt Of The Championship is… 🥁 Louis Rees-Zammit! 👏 pic.twitter.com/yUR12z8lwE
— Guinness Males’s Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) April 5, 2021
Rees-Zammit’s transfer to the NFL was the largest coup for the league’s Worldwide Participant Pathway — which recruits athletes from around the globe in hopes of accelerating the league’s ranks of worldwide gamers — because the program’s launch in 2017. Rees-Zammit ran the 40-yard sprint in 4.43 seconds at his professional day in March in entrance of scouts from 31 NFL groups.
He signed a three-year, $2.83 million contract with the Chiefs as a result of he needed to affix a Tremendous Bowl contender and felt coach Andy Reid may greatest use his abilities in a flexible function as a operating again. Common supervisor Brett Veach stated the Chiefs are dedicated to giving Rees-Zammit loads of time to showcase his capabilities within the NFL. Even when Rees-Zammit struggles within the preseason, a lot of his rookie season could possibly be spent additional growing his abilities on the apply squad.
“We all know he’s received unbelievable top-end pace,” linebacker Drue Tranquill stated of Rees-Zammit. “He’s received to be taught in move professional, the best way to sit down and the best way to tackle blocks. He’s received to be taught the in and outs of the sport, however he’s a fantastic athlete and that’ll include time.”
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Since becoming a member of the Chiefs, Rees-Zammit has gained the admiration of his teammates by his enthusiasm to be taught as a lot as he can concerning the sport, the enterprise of the NFL and the way he can greatest use his abilities at operating again.
“Something I can take from any of those boys which were taking part in the game for a very long time is wonderful,” Rees-Zammit stated. “Isiah has been serving to me out massively.”
Pacheco typically teaches Rees-Zammit strategies throughout particular person durations in apply. In a video launched by the Chiefs, Pacheco provided pass-blocking recommendation to Rees-Zammit, sharing the identical classes he discovered as a rookie two years in the past from Jerick McKinnon.
“We are able to each assist one another out”
Chiefs beginning RB Isiah Pacheco teaching up Louis Rees-Zammit is so superior to see (through @Chiefs) pic.twitter.com/1oMMX08jVr
— NFL UK & Eire (@NFLUKIRE) July 31, 2024
The 6-foot-2 Rees-Zammit gained 16 kilos in the summertime, reporting to camp at 209 kilos, to assist him be higher ready to endure the league’s physicality. He hasn’t missed a apply, exhibiting sturdiness and robust conditioning regardless of coaching in hotter temperatures than he was accustomed to. Sure particulars have been refined, too, similar to being constant together with his pre-snap stance and physique language when he strains up so he doesn’t tip off the protection concerning the upcoming play.
“The most important distinction is simply psychological,” he stated. “I’m nonstop attempting to be taught this playbook as a result of as quickly as I can play quick, that’s the largest factor. We don’t end conferences till 8 (p.m.), so I spend an additional two hours (after) simply studying the performs as a result of I’m taking part in catchup. There’s no time to relaxation for me. I’ve received to provide this my all as a result of in the end that is my dream.
“The primary aim is to make the staff. I do know particular groups are going to be large for me.”
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The very best and most direct method for Rees-Zammit to earn a roster spot is by excelling as a kickoff returner. On the finish of most of practices, particular groups coordinator Dave Toub has had Rees-Zammit and receiver Nikko Remigio because the Chiefs’ high two kickoff returners.
“We at all times inform the blokes that three or 4 guys make the staff due to their particular groups play,” Reid stated of Rees-Zammit and Remigio. “These two would in all probability match into that class, however they’ve nonetheless received to do properly at their place. For them to make the staff, they’ve received to assist out in that space.”
Toub believes Rees-Zammit could possibly be the right participant to suit the NFL’s new kickoff guidelines.
Louis Rees-Zammit returns a kickoff 👀 pic.twitter.com/VYiD7qrOMW
— KC Sports activities Community (@KCSportsNetwork) July 31, 2024
The NFL modified its kickoff to return the play to relevance. Final season, the kickoff had a return charge of simply 21.8 %, the bottom within the league’s 104-year historical past. No kickoff was returned in Tremendous Bowl LVIII. League officers need the return charge this season to extend to a minimum of 30 %.
The Chiefs hope Rees-Zammit could make an affect on kickoff returns within the preseason by mixing the ball-carrying abilities he perfected in rugby with the bettering imaginative and prescient, acceleration and elusiveness he has proven in camp when he has the ball within the open discipline.
“We’re attempting to get him all of the work we will to carry him in control,” Toub stated of Rees-Zammit. “He’s been nice. He’s doing a great job as a returner.”
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Rees-Zammit didn’t be a part of the Chiefs merely to be referred to as a kickoff returner.
He needs the ball in his arms as a lot as potential, proving to the Chiefs that he generally is a competent operating again. He additionally needs to achieve success for Joseph Zammit, his father who launched him to the NFL. Rising up in Penarth, Wales, Rees-Zammit watched many NFL video games alongside his father, who grew to become so enthusiastic about American soccer that he performed within the British American Soccer Affiliation in 1987 for the Cardiff Tigers as a receiver and operating again.
“I’ve informed him about coaching camp, how robust it’s been,” Rees-Zammit stated of his father. “He’s been giving me some ideas and methods on move safety — getting in shut, taking pictures my arms and dropping my top.”
Stackin’ these reps ⚡️ @LouisReesZammit pic.twitter.com/dK3IeHbwfh
— Kansas Metropolis Chiefs (@Chiefs) July 28, 2024
Rees-Zammit has earned some small victories in camp. The Chiefs’ first padded apply was tough for Rees-Zammit, who was hit and tackled behind the road of scrimmage over and over. The following day, he missed a wide-open operating lane, as a substitute operating into the again of tight finish Irv Smith Jr. However the subsequent day, he confirmed higher imaginative and prescient and persistence on a stretch play by sprinting by the right lane, the rep ending with no defender touching him.
Final week, Rees-Zammit’s most spectacular rep was as a receiver in a one-on-one drill towards linebacker Leo Chenal. Rees-Zammit flashed his pace on a fade route close to the sideline, as he sprinted by Chenal, tracked the deep move and caught the ball 30 yards downfield. And Rees-Zammit even gained a one-on-one battle in move safety towards rookie linebacker Swayze Bozeman, the rep ending with Pacheco shouting in celebration.
“I’m extremely pleased with myself and the journey I’ve been on,” Rees-Zammit stated.
Among the best elements of Saturday’s sport for Rees-Zammit is that his dad and mom, Joseph and Maxine, will probably be within the stands at EverBank Stadium to look at him carry out.
“Oh, he’s simply as excited as I’m,” Rees-Zammit stated of his father. “It’s going to be wonderful, a dream come true to have the ability to put the uniform on and embrace the second. I’m going to go on the market and give attention to my job totally and go for it.”
(Photograph: Denny Medley / USA At this time)
