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 follow in full pads.
“I can’t wait to see the distinction,” Rees-Zammit mentioned.
His true “welcome to the NFL” second, when the depth degree stunned him, got here the morning of July 28, which was the Chiefs’ third consecutive padded follow. Rees-Zammit’s one-on-one drill that day was one each working again within the NFL has needed to endure: The blitzing linebacker or security charging into the backfield, the lone project for the working again is to stop the defender from reaching the quarterback.
Throughout from Rees-Zammit on the sector was linebacker Cole Christiansen, who like Rees-Zammit is making an attempt to earn one of many ultimate 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 impression, Rees-Zammit misplaced his leverage and came upon simply how badly he might lose a pass-blocking rep. Christiansen de-cleated Rees-Zammit.
“It’s very bodily,” Rees-Zammit mentioned after Wednesday’s follow. “I’ve needed to be taught to adapt and decrease my physique peak. In rugby, that’s not an excessive amount of of an enormous deal. The blows you’re taking listed below are fairly large. To be sincere with you, it’s a very totally different sport.
“I’ve by no means needed to cross defend earlier than. It’s really unlawful in rugby. I’ve to attempt to decide it up as rapidly as attainable. I’m not going to be superb to begin with.”
#Chiefs Louis Rees-Zammit engaged on cross safety throughout Sunday’s coaching camp follow pic.twitter.com/BLjhyi0ZLC
— Aaron Ladd (@aaronladdtv) July 28, 2024
Reps just like the one in opposition to 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 displaying the Chiefs how briskly he can be taught and enhance with every new expertise on a soccer subject.
Simply seconds after his most embarrassing second in camp, Rees-Zammit stood up, wiped the sweat from his eyes and bought again in his two-point stance. When the following one-on-one rep started — in opposition to Christiansen once more — Rees-Zammit did a greater job of withstanding his teammate’s energy, pushing him away from Mahomes.
“The transition’s been implausible for him,” Chiefs working again Isiah Pacheco mentioned of Rees-Zammit. “Being that participant that may be a (chief) within the (working backs) room, (I’m) placing in his ear, ‘Simply maintain working exhausting, maintain 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 sooner 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 impression participant as a rookie, too. Not solely was he Gloucester’s youngest European attempt scorer in 2019, however he additionally scored 12 tries in 15 appearances, bettering at a speedy tempo that doesn’t occur usually in skilled rugby. His most plain trait as one of many rising wingers in world rugby was his elite velocity, which led to his nickname Rees-Lightning.
Followers gravitated to Rees-Zammit due to his assured taking part in model, his seems and his urge for food to be a global superstar at a younger age.
In 2021, Rees-Zammit helped lead Wales, his residence nation, to win the Six Nations championship. He produced his best spotlight throughout the occasion, too, a clutch, game-winning attempt that featured loads of his expertise — velocity, hand-eye coordination and daring creativity. Within the ultimate minutes of a highway match in opposition to Scotland, Rees-Zammit caught the ball on the perimeter of the sector 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 couple of months after the Six Nations event, Rees-Zammit acquired one of many best 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 skilled greater than 3,000 skilled athletes, in hopes of changing into a viable NFL participant.
“I achieved every thing I needed to in rugby,” Rees-Zammit mentioned in early Might. “I’ve all the time needed to stay in America. This was the right time to attempt to make it within the NFL and stay over right here.”
The winner of the #GuinnessSixNations Strive 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 world wide 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 hitch a Tremendous Bowl contender and felt coach Andy Reid might greatest use his expertise in a flexible function as a working again. Common supervisor Brett Veach mentioned 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 might be spent additional creating his expertise on the follow squad.
“We all know he’s bought unbelievable top-end velocity,” linebacker Drue Tranquill mentioned of Rees-Zammit. “He’s bought to be taught in cross professional, how you can sit down and how you can tackle blocks. He’s bought to be taught the in and outs of the sport, however he’s an important 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 expertise at working again.
“Something I can take from any of those boys which were taking part in the game for a very long time is superb,” Rees-Zammit mentioned. “Isiah has been serving to me out massively.”
Pacheco usually teaches Rees-Zammit strategies throughout particular person intervals in follow. In a video launched by the Chiefs, Pacheco supplied pass-blocking recommendation to Rees-Zammit, sharing the identical classes he discovered as a rookie two years in the past from Jerick McKinnon.
“We will each assist one another out”
Chiefs beginning RB Isiah Pacheco teaching up Louis Rees-Zammit is so superior to see (by way of @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 follow, displaying sturdiness and powerful conditioning regardless of coaching in hotter temperatures than he was accustomed to. Sure particulars have been refined, too, equivalent 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 largest distinction is simply psychological,” he mentioned. “I’m nonstop making an attempt 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 bought to provide this my all as a result of in the end that is my dream.
“The primary purpose is to make the staff. I do know particular groups are going to be large for me.”
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The most effective and most direct approach 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 all the time inform the fellows that three or 4 guys make the staff due to their particular groups play,” Reid mentioned of Rees-Zammit and Remigio. “These two would in all probability match into that class, however they’ve nonetheless bought to do effectively at their place. For them to make the staff, they’ve bought to assist out in that space.”
Toub believes Rees-Zammit might 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 price of simply 21.8 p.c, the bottom within the league’s 104-year historical past. No kickoff was returned in Tremendous Bowl LVIII. League officers need the return price this season to extend to no less than 30 p.c.
The Chiefs hope Rees-Zammit could make an impression on kickoff returns within the preseason by mixing the ball-carrying expertise 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 subject.
“We’re making an attempt to get him all of the work we are able to to convey him up to the mark,” Toub mentioned 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 part of the Chiefs merely to be often known as a kickoff returner.
He desires the ball in his arms as a lot as attainable, proving to the Chiefs that he generally is a competent working again. He additionally desires 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 turned so obsessed with American soccer that he performed within the British American Soccer Affiliation in 1987 for the Cardiff Tigers as a receiver and working again.
“I’ve advised him about coaching camp, how robust it’s been,” Rees-Zammit mentioned of his father. “He’s been giving me some suggestions and methods on cross safety — getting in shut, capturing my arms and dropping my peak.”
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 follow was tough for Rees-Zammit, who was hit and tackled behind the road of scrimmage over and over. The subsequent day, he missed a wide-open working lane, as a substitute working into the again of tight finish Irv Smith Jr. However the subsequent day, he confirmed higher imaginative and prescient and endurance 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 in opposition to linebacker Leo Chenal. Rees-Zammit flashed his velocity on a fade route close to the sideline, as he sprinted by Chenal, tracked the deep cross and caught the ball 30 yards downfield. And Rees-Zammit even received a one-on-one battle in cross safety in opposition to rookie linebacker Swayze Bozeman, the rep ending with Pacheco shouting in celebration.
“I’m extremely happy with myself and the journey I’ve been on,” Rees-Zammit mentioned.
Probably the greatest elements of Saturday’s sport for Rees-Zammit is that his mother and father, Joseph and Maxine, shall be within the stands at EverBank Stadium to observe him carry out.
“Oh, he’s simply as excited as I’m,” Rees-Zammit mentioned of his father. “It’s going to be superb, 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 Right this moment)
