Q&A: Linebacker, former Bruin Akeem Ayers discusses NFL, coming back to LA

Linebacker Akeem Ayers spent three years at UCLA, earning All-Pac-10 first-team honors as a junior before being drafted in the second round in 2011 by the Tennessee Titans. In his fourth season, Ayers was traded to New England and won a Super Bowl with the Patriots, making a game-saving tackle in the final minute. Last offseason he signed a two-year contract with the St. Louis Rams, which will now be playing in Los Angeles.

Daily Bruin: What’s it like to be coming back to LA with the Rams?

Akeem Ayers: It’s great, man. Being from LA, of course, and playing at UCLA, it’s a good feeling to get to play in front of friends and all the people I played in front of in high school, college, a lot of family members. They can all watch you play now in person.

DB: Coming back to LA, do you plan to go back where you grew up or what are you planning to do?

AA: So far, I took a visit to my high school in LA this week. It’s a private school, an all-boys private school in Watts that’s not too far from where I grew up at. I took a visit there, presented them with a Super Bowl golden football and talked to the students there – it was an all-day event. That’s the first thing I did.

I just plan on being able to get out in the community more, especially where I grew up at, just to be able to do a lot of community work around there – you know, with the youth football team where I played at or whatever it may be.

DB: What did you think of the year you had on the field?

AA: It was pretty good. I think it could be better, we had some guys injured, had to step up and play a different role. It was good. I’ve had better seasons before – you know, just me holding myself to high expectations – that’s not the mark of what I believe I am as a player.

But like I said, we played good team defense, we played good teams and we had one of the better defenses in the NFL. So that’s the one thing I’m proud about, but there’s definitely a lot of room for improvement in this upcoming season.

DB: What’s it like to be part of a defense that sort of leads the team?

AA: Oh, man, it’s great – our defense is very talented. Every position, we’re deep – we have guys who compete.

It’s like no other defense I’ve been around – the talent that we have on this team is unbelievable, we’ve got guys who can make plays. And that’s a good thing because it challenges each person on defense, we’ve got to step our play up because of the guys who are around. We all push everybody to be better.

I think that really makes a good defense when everyone on defense wants to excel at their position. We take it very serious and we put in extra film study. As a defense, it’s very important to us – that’s the good thing about our defensive presence, the guys that we have.

DB: You guys have one of the best defensive lines in the NFL. How does that help you as a linebacker when you’ve got guys up there who are occupying blocks like that?

AA: It makes our job easy, you know what I mean? They get double teams – the offensive lines always have to account for them, always have to keep their eyes on them so it allows us to free up a lot of times. Like, our defensive line is so good that they’re the ones getting all the TFLs (tackles for loss) in the backfield.

But when they’re dealing with the offensive line, it allows us a lot of times to just be free. We don’t have to worry about offensive tackles being up on us so quick so it allows us as linebackers to run through gaps and run down the ball carrier.

DB: Have you heard people talking about UCLA now as Linebacker University?

AA: Yeah, I have, actually.

DB: What does that feel like to hear that?

AA: It feels good, man, especially just seeing some of the guys that I played with and then knowing that I’m a part of that – played linebacker at UCLA and got drafted.

Even the linebackers that came before me, you know, that’s something that I paid attention to when I decided to come to UCLA. I could see the linebackers they had there, the way linebackers were playing and I was fortunate enough to come there and play at a high level.

Now we’ve got the guys coming up – (Eric) Kendricks and (Anthony) Barr and Myles Jack – all the guys coming up. People continue to take notice and it’s a good thing for UCLA. It’s a good thing to be recognized.

DB: How much do you talk, or have you talked, with guys like Kendricks, Barr, Myles Jack?

AA: I talk to Kendricks and Anthony Barr, I talk to those guys pretty regular. I haven’t gotten a chance to talk to Myles Jack. With him being new, I wasn’t there at the time. But a lot of the guys, I talk to pretty regular. We have good relationships, we’re close – when we’re back home we all hang out and we communicate on the regular.

DB: Myles Jack is going to have the Combine soon, before the draft. You still ended up going in the second round, but it seems like you didn’t have the best Combine. What would be your advice for him going forward?

AA: I mean, just to get with a solid program, some training service that does Combine training – like, the well-known ones.

You want to get around a group of guys. It’s good to train with different players getting ready for the combine because you can push yourself and it makes you become better. Like you’re running your 40 and you guys are all competing, and it forces you to become better. When you’re weightlifting, you guys are all competing. You’re all trying to get a job and you’re competing with each other.

That will allow you to be physically better, perform better when the Combine comes because you’ve been competing with the same type of athletes, the top athletes in college football, all for a job. It just pushes you and pushes you to be a better performer.

DB: When you came from the Patriots – you know, you had just won a Super Bowl and you come from an organization like that and you go to the Rams, what kind of responsibility do you have and what have you tried to do to bring that type of a culture to the Rams?

AA: Players don’t have that power in how an organization is run so all I can really do is just give advice, let them know how it was done. Every team does it different – there’s not just one way to have success, but I think there’s similarities.

One of the main things – being there, being around that organization and seeing how it’s done, the game is taken very seriously. Everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. Everyone is focused from the coaching staff to the players to the training staff to everyone – you know, just doing what they need to do.

The players and the coaches at the time I was there, the way they approach the game – going into each week, we were highly prepared. Everyone knew what they were doing. That routine meant very little mistakes, and I think that’s the biggest thing I can give as advice to the guys that are on my team now.

DB: I wanted to tell you I read your Player’s Tribune piece, that was a cool thing to read. Do you plan on doing any more writing?

AA: Thank you. I actually enjoyed it a lot, getting the opportunity to really tell my story in the way I wanted to tell it, as opposed to someone asking me questions and writing it down for what they think.

I think it was real good for me just to really express myself in my own words, talk about what I want to talk about and what I want to put out there – I enjoyed it a lot. I don’t know exactly when, but I’m actually doing another story so hopefully I can get it done sometime soon.

Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.