The Rams will activate wide receiver Tutu Atwell from injured reserve this week, coach Sean McVay said Wednesday.
Atwell has not played since Oct. 19 when he injured a hamstring, missing six consecutive games.
The Rams had to make a decision on Atwell this week about whether to activate him from injured reserve or let him finish the season on injured reserve.
Atwell signed a $10 million contract in the offseason but has only four catches for 164 yards and a touchdown this season.
Puka Nacua had an excellent performance in the Rams’ big win over the Cardinals on Sunday, making contested catch after contested catch.
Nacua has now been recognized by the league, as he was named NFC offensive player of the week on Wednesday.
In his third season, Nacua has become one of the NFL’s elite receivers. He finished Sunday’s contest with seven receptions for 167 yards and two touchdowns. It was the first time all year he’s recorded a multi-touchdown game.
Nacua now has 277 career catches, which passed Michael Thomas (274) for most career receptions in his first 40 games.
This is Nacua’s third career offensive player of the week award and the second time he’s earned the honor in 2025.
Nacua leads the league with 93 catches this season, despite missing one game due to injury. He’s tallied 1,186 yards with six touchdowns.
The Rams will be at home to face the Lions on Sunday.
The previously settled catch rule has once again descended into full uncertainty and borderline madness, after the league office overturned Sunday’s ruling on the field that Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely completed the process of scoring what should have been a fourth-quarter, go-ahead touchdown.
On Monday night, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford — a constant presence in the NFL since 2009 — commented on the various shifts and changes to the catch rule, while also lamenting the periodic absence of common sense.
“Since I’ve been in for 17 years now, I feel like the rules changed every third or fourth year,” Stafford said on the SiriusXM Let’s Go! podcast. “You look at the Ravens game against the Steelers and Isaiah Likely’s play and at the end of the game and is it a touchdown? Is it not? Sure felt like one. Sure looked like one in my eyes.”
Stafford expressed sympathy for the officials, who are required to see things in real time and make quick decisions.
“I’m sure they’re getting help from New York,” Stafford acknowledged.
But here’s the point. As to the two controversial (and irreconcilable) catch/no-catch decisions from Steelers-Ravens, New York overturned seemingly correct rulings made by the on-field officials. “Clear and obvious” has quietly and systematically taken a back seat to someone (good luck figuring out who it is) replacing their assessment via replay review for the snap judgment of the officials, without giving those decisions the broad deference that the rules require.
Put simply, the league office has gone rogue. It’s misapplying the replay standard. And, for whatever reason, it’s ignoring key elements of the catch rule. As to Likely, the review process disregarded the multiple ways he could have satisfied the process by performing an act common to the game and treated the absence of a third step as dispositive. As to the Aaron Rodgers non-catch, the review process didn’t consider the requirement that a player going to the ground must keep possession until he lands.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow as a player because sometimes it may not say it in the rule book or exactly show you, but man, you know it as a player,” Stafford said. “Hey, I caught that ball, or I didn’t catch that ball. Or this was a fumble or it wasn’t. And to have that overturned and cost your team possibly a chance at the playoffs or whatever it is. . . . I wish sometimes common sense would override the rule a little bit.”
We’d settle for the rules being applied as written. As written, the rules codify common sense. As interpreted by the replay process on Sunday, the league office proved the age-old maxim that common sense ain’t.
Philip Rivers is back. And he could be playing for the Colts as soon as this weekend.
If/when he does, each yard he generates in the passing game will move him closer to moving from No. 7 to No. 6 on the all-time passing yardage list.
Currently, Rivers has 63,440 yards. Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has 64,088 yards. With 649 yards, Rivers will leapfrog Roethlisberger.
Of course, it likely will come down to a question of No. 7 vs. No. 8. Ram quarterback Matthew Stafford is about to skip past both of them.
Stafford, No. 8 on the list, has 63,163 yards. He’s only 277 behind Rivers, and 925 behind Roethlisberger. As a result, Big Ben quite possibly is less than a month away from falling to No. 8.
Which leads to the next question. If Rivers, at 44, can return after not playing since 2020, could Roethlisberger come back after not playing since 2021? He has said that the 49ers gauged his interest in 2022.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say there was a small part of me that was intrigued,” Roethlisberger said in 2023. “I could still do it and prove to people that I could still play. At the end of the day, I just can’t see myself in anything other than black and gold.”
So there it is. The door is closed for Roethlisberger. Just like everyone thought it was for Rivers. Until yesterday.
The Rams parted ways with linebacker Nick Hampton on Tuesday.
The team announced that they have waived Hampton off of the 53-man roster. They also released tight end Nick Muse from their practice squad.
Hampton was a 2023 fifth-round pick out of Appalachian State and he has appeared in 36 games for the Rams since joining the team. He’s been a regular on special teams all three years and played 112 defensive snaps this season. Hampton has 17 tackles and two passes defensed over his entire time in the league.
The move leaves the Rams with an open roster spot heading into their Week 15 game against the Lions. Wide receiver Tutu Atwell has been designated for return from injured reserve and could be activated this week.
