Team winds up rookie camp

ST. LOUIS -- A weekend of intense instruction for rookies, with the veterans still at home, left St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz convinced this is the right way to conduct the team's first minicamp.

Pressure from the NFLPA led to teams holding the first minicamp just for the new guys. After the last of five weekend workouts, Martz believes the draft picks and other prospects will be better prepared next weekend for the team's first mandatory full-squad minicamp.

"To be honest, I'm glad you're forced to do this," Martz said. "It makes you bring these guys into your system the right way, so to speak.

"It gives these guys a chance to come in and not have those anxiety attacks about being with the veterans."

The format allowed for plenty of one-on-one instruction. The Rams invited 29 players to the camp, and there are 17 coaches on the roster.

"You can take this as fast or as slow as you want from a teaching standpoint," Martz said. "

It went very slowly for first-round draft pick Jimmy Kennedy, a defensive tackle from Penn State who strained his left knee early in the first workout on Friday. Kennedy rode a stationary bicycle on Saturday and Sunday.

"I feel like a lot of guys are disappointed in me right now," Kennedy said. "It's something minor, but it's just frustrating to be the top guy drafted here and watch the other guys go and have the coaches think that I'm not in shape or whatever they want to think."

Kennedy reported to the minicamp at 332 pounds, 10 more than he weighed at the combine in February. Rams defensive line coach Bill Kollar wants him to play about 10 pounds lighter.

"Can I go out there and play a full game like Coach Kollar wants me to play, all-out every play?" Kennedy said. "Nah. I still have a lot to learn and I have to get my weight under control."

Other draft picks had problems, as well. Cornerbacks DeJuan Groce and Shane Walton, taken in the fourth and fifth round, each had a light day on Saturday after tweaking hamstrings. Linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa, the second-rounder, struggled with written tests administered by the coaching staff to gauge the rookies' retention.

"I didn't do well, to be honest," Tinoisamoa said. "I was the lowest out of all the linebackers, so that's a lot of room for me to improve."

Tinoisamoa vowed to have a better handle on the formations and terminology on Friday when the veterans show up.

"My job right now is to learn the plays so I can show them what I can do, because if I don't know my plays I'll be all over the place and then they'll look at me like, 'Oh man, this is a mistake on this guy.'

"I'm going to try to get all my stuff down."