Rams wide receiver Davante Adams returned to practice on Thursday. He was limited.
Adams injured his oblique in the second half of the Rams’ win over the 49ers on Sunday.
Coach Sean McVay said Wednesday that Adams is expected to play against the Seahawks.
Adams has 42 receptions for 568 yards and a league-leading nine touchdowns this season.
Defensive end Kobie Turner (back) remained out of practice on Thursday.
Wide receiver Jordan Whittington (back) returned to full participation after limited work on Wednesday, and cornerback Darious Williams (shoulder) remained full.
The two tenants of SoFi Stadium are having good seasons. And that could lead to a big problem for the NFL, in time.
In theory, the 7-2 Rams and 7-3 Chargers could be hosting conference championship games. In the same stadium. On the same day.
The games wouldn’t be played on the same day, however. Seventeen years ago, when both the Giants and Jets were good in November (yes, it’s been that long since both New York teams were having good seasons in November), Commissioner Roger Goodell said one game would be played at the now-demolished Giant Stadium on Sunday and the other game would be played on Monday.
That’s how the league would likely handle it if ever happens for two teams that share a stadium. The Jets and Giants still do, as do the Chargers and Rams.
Sunday night for one game, Monday night for the other. The winner of the Monday night game would have one fewer day to get ready for the Super Bowl. With a dead week in between, that team would still have 13 days.
If that ever happens (each year, there’s a 7.8-percent probability of it, based on the mathematical — but unrealistic — fact that every team has an equal chance hosting a conference championship game), here’s what would happen next. The ratings for the pair of prime-time games would be larger than the ratings for the current Sunday doubleheader.
And the owners would see that increase in audience and decide to start doing it every year.
The Giants and Jets started sharing a stadium in 1984. The Rams and Chargers began sharing a stadium in 2020. To date, 2008 presented the best chance of it happening, this late in the season.
As of Week 12, the Giants were 10-1 and the Jets were 8-3. The Giants, who lost four of five to end the regular season but still secured the No. 1 seed, lost in the divisional round at home to the Eagles. The Jets, whose quarterback (Brett Favre) had an undisclosed partial biceps tendon tear, lost four of five down the stretch and missed the playoffs.
This weekend, the Rams could beat the Seahawks and move to 8-2. If the 7-2 Eagles lose to the 6-3 Lions on Sunday night, the Rams would have a one-game lead for the No. 1 seed in the NFC. And if the Chargers beat the Jaguars and the 5-4 Chiefs beat the 8-2 Broncos, L.A. would move into a tie with Denver for first place in the AFC West. (The Patriots and Colts are each 8-2.)
There’s still a lot of football to be played after this weekend. Still, the planets are generally in position to have a real chance to finally align.
With two shared stadiums, it’s inevitable that there will be a conference championship conflict. Which makes a Sunday night/Monday night arrangement for one year inevitable.
Which makes a Sunday night/Monday night arrangement for every year inevitable, too.
Starting in 2006, when Sunday Night Football moved from cable to broadcast, the NFL began utilizing the ability to slide bad games away from the big platform, replacing them with more compelling matchups. The flex scheduling concept has more recently spread to other prime-time windows, with Thursday night and Monday nights now in the mix.
Setting aside the fact that flexing games not by hours but by days creates logistical issues and potential expenses for fans traveling to games, if the league is going to prioritize harvesting large audiences over in-stadium fan convenience, there’s more work to be done.
Specifically, the Thursday/Monday flexing needs to begin earlier.
For Monday games, flexing is available from Weeks 12 through 17 (with 12 days notice). For Thursday games, it’s available from Weeks 13 through 17 (with 21 days notice).
It’s now Week 11. And the Monday night game has the Raiders hosting the Cowboys. In contrast, the Week 11 Sunday slate has MANY better games that could have been moved to Monday night. (The same concept applies to the Thursday night game, which puts the 2-7 Jets in a standalone window.)
The mid-season, non-flex donut hole raises another important point. When the league is putting the schedule together, it’s critical to get the Thursday and Monday games right from, say, late October until the flex window opens. The potentially “bad” teams should have any prime-time games early in the year, before their records fully expose their flaws. The Raiders — a team anyone paying even casual attention to the NFL knew or should have known would struggle this year — nevertheless had a Thursday night game in Week 10 and a Monday night game in Week 11.
The best candidate to move to Week 11 Monday night would have been Seahawks-Rams, which is currently hidden in a 4:05 p.m. ET regional window. (Chiefs-Broncos is the big-platform 4:25 p.m. ET game.) Under current rules, however, Seahawks-Rams couldn’t have gone to Monday night because the rematch is set for a future Thursday night. And one of the two games in the annual rivalry must be available to Fox.
If the goal is to put the best games in prime time, that rule needs to go away. And, yes, it’s important not to rob Peter blind in order to provide Paul with compelling prime-time games, but there are enough “good” games to go around in most weeks (and especially in this week).
It should never happen that, in November, the Monday night game is one of the objectively least desirable games of a weekend that has Sunday afternoon games like Seahawks-Rams, Broncos-Chiefs, Buccaneers-Bills, Charges-Jaguars, Bears-Vikings, and Bengals-Steelers.
Seahawks wide receiver Cooper Kupp will be back in familiar surroundings this Sunday.
Kupp spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Rams and he’ll be back at SoFi Stadium for the first time since he was released in March. Kupp quickly landed a spot with the Seahawks after that move and that meant he was guaranteed to be visiting his former team at least once this season.
With that visit here, Kupp faced questions about his approach. He said that “you can’t make this game about yourself” because of any “outstanding circumstances” and that he’ll be treating it the way he treats every other game as a result.
“It’s another football game,” Kupp said, via the team’s website. “You get out there, play your game. I love these guys, I love so many of the guys over there, but at the end of the day, you’ve to go play a football game, so that’s going to be what it is. Try to treat this the same as any other game, go out there and lock in and do your job one play after the next. Take that play-by-play mindset, same as usual.”
Kupp was the center of attention in the passing game for much of his time with the Rams, but injuries and Puka Nacua’s emergence changed his role in his final years. He’s playing a complementary role again with Jaxon Smith-Njigba the clear No. 1 in Seattle and he has 26 catches for 367 yards and a touchdown in eight games this season.
Davante Adams did not practice on Wednesday with his oblique injury, but Rams coach Sean McVay expects the wide receiver to play Sunday.
“He’s making good progress,” McVay said, via Stu Jackson of the team website. “That’s what he tells me (that he expects to play). He’s feeling good, and so I trust the man. He’ll be ready.”
Adams had six receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown in the Rams’ win over the 49ers on Sunday. He left in the second half with what the team initially called a back injury.
Adams has 42 receptions for 568 yards and a league-leading nine touchdowns this season.
Defensive end Kobie Turner (back) also didn’t practice.
Wide receiver Jordan Whittington (back) was limited, and cornerback Darious Williams (shoulder) was a full participant.
