Chargers host Rams in joint practice

The Los Angeles Chargers hosted the Los Angeles Rams for a joint practice at Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex in Costa Mesa on Thursday morning.

Both teams made the playoffs last season, with the Rams falling just short of a championship in a 13-3 loss to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII.

One year from now, the Chargers and Rams will also move into the same building after the completion of a new stadium in Inglewood. The city of Los Angeles demands stars, and questions about a “Fight for L.A.” have resurfaced.

At the conclusion of practice, Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn fielded a question regarding the growing expectation of fans that his team should be among the championship contenders this year.

“To me, it’s no different than what it was last year,” Lynn said. “We wanted to win the Super Bowl last year. That’s our expectation every single year.

“The pressure, we apply that pressure to ourselves. No one has higher expectations than we have for ourselves and our organization and our players and coaches.”

At present, the Chargers continue to prepare for this season without Melvin Gordon in training camp. The fifth-year running back and two-time Pro Bowl selection is holding out for a new contract.

That has put much of the spotlight in training camp on a pair of running backs in Austin Ekeler (third year) and Justin Jackson (second year). The Chargers went 4-0 without Gordon last season, with the fore-mentioned tandem sharing the bulk of the load.

“He talked to us before camp,” Jackson said of Gordon. “Obviously, he’s got to do what he’s got to do. We’re holding it down until he gets back, but we all love him.

“He’s a part of this room, and he knows that. We all know that.”

Ekeler and Jackson both saw first-team snaps against the Rams defense, and the duo believes that they complement each other well.

“Justin, he’s a creative runner,” Ekeler said. “He’s a unique runner. There’s not many people that I’ve seen, in general, that run like he does. Like I tell him, ‘He’s got some razzle-dazzle, some hocus-pocus.’

“That’s how I describe his running. You really don’t know what he is going to do. I try to emulate some of his running, and it’s just so unique to how he has done it and his style.”

Free safety Eric Weddle joins the Rams after spending his first nine seasons with the Chargers and the last three with the Baltimore Ravens. He joked that his former teammate, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers, did not challenge him during the scrimmage.

“I didn’t get much action from him today,” Weddle said. “It’s all right, though. It was fun. I love and have the utmost respect for him and all the players I used to play with.

“It was fun to get out there on the practice field and…compete. It makes each other better, and we got better today. That’s the main point and the main goal out of this.”

Rams head coach Sean McVay said the joint practice was a welcomed wrinkle in the schedule from lining up against teammates. The Rams will host the Chargers in another joint practice at UC Irvine on Saturday.

Lynn also sees the benefit in holding joint practices.

“It [brings] a little more energy,” Lynn said. “We get tired of going against each other, so we get some new blood in here, brings a little more energy. When you get energy, you get more focus, and hopefully, more production.”