49ers continue to live 'rent free' in Rams' heads, and latest report shows why

The 49ers have dominated the Rams in recent years, and it appears as if that's changed how Los Angeles has gone about its practices.

Yes, of course, the Los Angeles Rams can boast over the San Francisco 49ers about what happened in January 20221.

LA defeated the Niners in the NFC Championship game before beating the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl two weeks later.

Meanwhile, San Francisco hasn't won a Super Bowl since 1995.

Aside from that very large blip, though, the 49ers have done nothing but dominate their NFC West rivals, pulling off a stretch of nine wins over the last 10 regular-season games, the only miss being a "meaningless" Week 18 game to close out the 2023 season in which the Niners had already clinched the top seed in the playoffs.

Los Angeles' head coach, Sean McVay, stems from the coaching tree of San Francisco's own head coach, Kyle Shanahan. So, it's not hard to see why a "cold war" of sorts will continue to play out between these two rivals.

However, it appears as if the 49ers' recent domination over LA has affected exactly how McVay has gone about engineering training camp practices.

Rams changing up training camp practices to keep pace with 49ers

In the most recent MMQB column from Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer, an observation of Rams training camp practices suggested McVay's approach has been to ramp up efforts to ensure the Niners' success over the years comes to a close.

Breer wrote:

"The pace of the Rams’ practice. We mentioned earlier how more teams are trying to callous their players, and there’s no question that McVay’s group is in that category, with new offensive assistants Mike LaFleur, Nick Caley and Ryan Wendell having brought a more physical edge to the scheme last year. To some degree, my feeling is it’s been a response to how the 49ers have out-toughed the Rams at points in the past. Having LaFleur, a longtime Niners assistant, has helped."

LaFleur, who served on Shanahan's staff in one capacity or another going back to when both were with the Cleveland Browns in 2014, also served with San Francisco through 2020 before heading to the New York Jets under head coach Robert Saleh, another Shanahan disciple.

Additionally, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo inked a deal with Los Angeles to back up starting quarterback Matthew Stafford, so one has to figure that'll influence the Rams' efforts to stop the domination.

Will it be enough, though?

According to Fox Sports' latest NFL power rankings, probably not. Whereas the 49ers are ranked No. 2 entering the upcoming season, LA is much further down at No. 11. Some analysts see Los Angeles stuck between remote contention and a long-term rebuild, meaning the Rams might be a little more feisty against the Niners this season but not a significant threat.

At least LA is trying, though.

Hat tip to Kyle Madson of Niners Wire for the find.

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