The dream team has had an unexpected detour.
After losing to the 49ers badly in Melbourne, and given Myles Garrett’s candid remarks about the impact of his health on his performance, Garrett will have knee surgery and be placed on injured reserve, per multiple reports.
It’s a stunning development for a Rams team that became the odds-on favorites to win the Super Bowl after Garrett’s arrival in June. His presence lured Aaron Donald out of retirement. Now, Donald will be playing for at least four games (if Donald plays in Week 2) without Garrett.
And it won’t be an easy road. The Rams host the Giants next Monday night. The following Sunday night, they face the Broncos in Denver. Then, the Rams head to Philly for a date with the Eagles. After that, the Rams return home for a Monday night showdown with Josh Allen and the Bills.
As the conversation continues on the Rams’ apparent misfire regarding the decision to barnstorm into and out of Melbourne, there’s another question that needs to be asked about Week 1 international games played a long way away from the U.S.
Michael Holley mentioned the concept on Friday’s PFT Live. And it’s a good idea — the league should treat the Week 1 international game like the Super Bowl and require the teams to arrive early.
If the goal is to export the game to the countries, the effort needs to be more comprehensive. Get there early. Make local appearances. Have multiple press conferences in the place where the game will be played.
It takes the travel strategy out of the teams’ hands and makes the issue part of the overall obligation.
Yes, the rest of the story regarding the 49ers-Rams travel adventure will unfold in Week 2, and possibly beyond. But the 49ers seemed to be far more prepared to play given their decision to go to Australia a week early. Having both teams arrive on the same day avoids the possibility that one team will be acclimated and one won’t.
Of course, the Rams’ experience may be enough to get the selected teams to go early without being told to do so. But why even let it be a variable? The NFL is already imposing on the teams by making them play on the other side of the world. It’s not much more of an imposition to mandate the itinerary.
49ers quarterback Brock Purdy’s 39-yard piss missile to receiver Demarcus Robinson in the first half of Thursday night’s game in Australia became the first clear indication that San Francisco could indeed topple the 2026 edition of the Dream Team.
San Francisco’s 27-7 victory over the favorites to win Super Bowl LXI has prompted a shift in the Super Bowl betting profiles of both teams.
The Rams remain the favorites, with their odds slightly sinking from +500 to +600. The 49ers have experienced an uptick. Their pregame odds of +1900 have moved to +1400.
The odds mean little. They only reflect the perception of those who are inclined to put skin in the game.
It’s still interesting to see how the perceptions have become revised in the aftermath of one game. For the Rams, it’s regarded as an aberration. For the 49ers, it’s an indication that the overlooked team in the NFC West will have something to say about the ultimate outcome of the season, and perhaps then some.
It’s one thing for Rams defensive end Myles Garrett to make no impact in his first game with his second team. It’s quite another to hear Garrett explain the reasons for his struggles.
“When I was out there I was a little more focused on myself and trying to stay healthy than what they were doing, and it showed,” Garrett said.
That’s alarming. And unusual. Typically, players don’t play if concerns about their health become a distraction to the task at hand. It’s fair to wonder why Garrett played — and why the Rams didn’t intervene and stop him from playing.
It’s also fair to wonder whether the Rams knew about Garrett’s circumstances. If they had, the Rams may not have used him for six special-teams snaps, hopeful he’d show off his ability to block a kick, or two.
The urgency to play was surely very, very strong for Garrett. It was the biggest move of the offseason. Garrett, who had wanted to be traded by the Browns for years, finally got his wish. The transaction made the Rams the presumptive Super Bowl favorites. It got Aaron Donald to come out of retirement.
And then, in Week 1, Garrett had the same impact on the game that Donald did, even though Donald didn’t even make the trip.
A player should be at his healthiest in Week 1. For Garrett, he’ll need to get to 100 percent with a fresh train on the tracks, each and every week. With the bye not coming until Week 11, Garrett has nine more games to go until he gets extra time to recover.
Fans and media spend most of the offseason pondering the hypothetical regarding the season to come. Once the games begin, the practical takes over. Through one game, the practical impact of Garrett was far below what it could have and should have been.
The clock is now ticking toward Week 2, vs. the Giants. And Week 3, at the Broncos. And Week 4, at the Eagles. And Week 5, vs. the Bills.
Will Garrett, now 30, have a chance to get his body to where he wants to be? If not, how loud will the questions become about whether the Rams may have been better off if they’d kept Jared Verse?
The volume will also depend on Verse’s performances for the Browns, starting in two days at Jacksonville.
With the Rams facing fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line on Thursday night, Matthew Stafford attempted a quarterback sneak. It did not go well: Stafford took the snap and fell into the line, going nowhere and ending what had been an excellent drive just short of the goal line.
That raised an obvious question: Why was a quarterback sneak the play call? Stafford isn’t Jalen Hurts or Josh Allen. He’s a 38-year-old who attempted two quarterback sneaks last year and failed on both of them, and who didn’t gain as much as a single rushing first down in 17 regular-season games last year.
Rams coach Sean McVay said after the game that he viewed failing to score at the end of that 12-play, 72-yard drive as the moment the wind went out of the Rams’ sails.
“We go right down the field and then we don’t get in on the QB sneak, and things got out of hand from there,” McVay said.
Given that, McVay needs to look in the mirror at his own play-calling decision. Stafford confirmed that the sneak was a called play and not something he did on his own.
“I’ve just got to find a way to get in,” Stafford said.
If McVay wanted to sneak it in from the 1-yard line, it would have made more sense for the Rams to snap the ball to a tight end or running back, which many teams with aging or immobile quarterbacks do. Or McVay simply could have called another short-yardage play. McVay’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-goal was a good one, but the play call was a bad one.
