Rams hold first meeting as a team in Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Rams met for the first time as a team in Southern California on Friday, and players said they came away from the gathering with good information.

“It was productive and it was informative,” offensive lineman Rodger Saffold said after the meeting at a Manhattan Beach hotel. “They basically gave us a general idea of what to do here.

“But it’s still going to be a lot of work. We know that you need to be flexible. It’s a lot of changes in a short amount of time.”

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Rams Coach Jeff Fisher, General Manager Les Snead and Kevin Demoff, executive vice president of football operations, and other team executives attended the voluntary meeting.

Demoff said the meeting enabled players to “really begin the process of what being an L.A. Ram looks like.”

The players were shown a video of plans for the new Inglewood stadium, which is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2019 season.

“They were hooting and hollering,” Demoff said. “They were excited, which I think makes us excited.”

Fisher said about 80% of the roster attended the meeting.

Players were informed that they would have off-season workouts in Oxnard, and that they probably would have training camp at UC Irvine and in-season workouts in the Thousand Oaks area.

The off-season program begins April 18. Fisher said he addressed commuting in Southern California traffic.

“It was just good to be here and hear from Coach and everything so we all understand what to expect and where we’re going to be at,” defensive tackle Aaron Donald said.

Punter Johnny Hekker said the meeting was productive.

“We’ve all been in the dark, kind of, to this point, but this meeting helped clear up a lot of stuff,” he said.

Hekker said players and families were looking forward to the move from St. Louis to Southern California.

“They’re a little bit sad to be leaving what’s familiar, but the sunshine and sandy beaches aren’t too bad to have waiting ahead of you,” he said. “People are pretty excited. I’ve had people hitting me up asking when I’m getting Disneyland season passes, so well see how that all shakes out.”

Fisher said cornerback Trumaine Johnson, who received the franchise tag on Tuesday, signed a tender offer. If the Rams and Johnson do not reach agreement on a longer-term deal by July 15, Johnson will earn about $14 million next season.

Johnson and cornerback Janoris Jenkins, also an unrestricted free agent, did not attend the meeting.

Follow Gary Klein on Twitter @LATimesKlein

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