Eric Kendricks has had a lot of defensive coordinators in 11 NFL seasons, and that turned out to be useful when the Los Angeles Rams signed him to their practice squad on Oct. 6. The 34-year-old linebacker told listeners of his weekly podcast that the playbook under Rams defensive coordinator Chris Shula uses much of the same language Mike Zimmer taught him in Minnesota and Dallas.
Kendricks hosts “Bent Outta Shape” with his former Vikings teammate Anthony Barr, and the episode posted Wednesday was his first since he got back in an NFL building. The Rams segment runs from about the 7:00 mark to 20:00.
“Names is the hardest part”
Before signing, Kendricks had been training on his own while he waited for a team. “I kind of really just jump right back into it,” he said, describing the switch to being “fully in the building, crunching playbooks, learning terms … learning names.”
Learning names, he said, was harder than learning the scheme. “Names is the hardest part of the process because like the first couple of days, everybody’s just kind of introducing themselves to you,” Kendricks said. Linebackers, defensive backs and defensive linemen are easy to remember because he spends so much time with them. The third- or fourth-string tight end, the swing tackle or a rookie lineman take longer. “I have so much to learn right now,” he said, adding that he was “a little bit scrambled the first couple of days especially.”
Shula’s terms, Zimmer’s terms
Kendricks counted the defensive systems he has played in since 2015: Zimmer’s in Minnesota, Ed Donatell’s in his last Vikings season, Brandon Staley’s with the Chargers in 2023, Zimmer’s again with the Cowboys in 2024, and now Shula’s. Then he remembered one more. “I didn’t even remember that I had Saleh last year,” he said, meaning Robert Saleh with the 49ers in 2025. “So I had — that’s five.”
He said the schemes themselves don’t line up neatly. Zimmer’s defense was more of a 4-3 and the Rams are more of a 3-4, so his alignments, the way he takes on blocks and the blitzes are all different. The vocabulary is a different story. “Shula’s terms match up with Zim’s terms,” Kendricks said. Calls for safety rotations, cloud sides and man coverage mean the same responsibility in both playbooks. That means he can hear a call in a Rams meeting and already know what the job is, even if he lines up somewhere new.
“So it actually helps a ton that Shula and Zim’s … I never would have thought that,” he said. He kept the details to himself: “I’m trying to be vanilla without giving out names of the terms, trying to keep it in house.”
“I’m like 34 years old”
Kendricks said he is on the practice-squad schedule for now, which includes an extra lift, and that he told the Rams’ strength staff up front what his body needs. “Some people know how like I’m an established player, but some people don’t know I’m like 34 years old,” he said. “When I got first day in the weight room, I had to let them know, hey, these are some of my limitations.” He said the staff already had a plan for him and was “really cool about” it.
Watching Josh Allen from the sideline
The Rams did not elevate Kendricks for Monday night’s game against Buffalo, so he watched the 37-34 overtime loss from the sideline. He said he mostly kept quiet. “Most of the time I just kept my mouth shut. Like, I just got there,” he said. “I felt like it’s hard for me to like criticize and be critical because I didn’t do nothing. I just got here trying to earn my keep, you know, trying to find my role.” What stood out to him was the sideline’s belief: “They never felt like they were ever out of it, always in it, locked in.”
Barr pointed out that the Rams held Josh Allen to 210 passing yards. In his view, the real problem was Allen’s running, which produced 121 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, and he put more of that on the pass rush opening lanes than on the linebackers. Barr also brought up Puka Nacua’s night: 17 catches on 24 targets for 138 yards and a touchdown.
Where he fits
Kendricks was a second-round pick, 45th overall, out of UCLA in 2015. He spent his first eight seasons with the Vikings and was a first-team All-Pro in 2019. He played for the Chargers in 2023 and had 138 tackles, two interceptions and three forced fumbles for Dallas in 2024. San Francisco signed him to its practice squad last November. He appeared in three regular-season games and then started both of the 49ers’ playoff games. For his career, he has 1,180 tackles, 11 interceptions and eight forced fumbles in 150 regular-season games.
In Los Angeles he is veteran depth behind starting inside linebackers Omar Speights and Nate Landman. The 2-3 Rams host the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday at 4:05 p.m. EDT on FOX.
No published comments yet. Start the conversation.