Rams Clips
The Rams’ injury report remained the same as on Wednesday aside from wide receiver Davante Adams returning from a rest day and nose tackle Poona Ford taking a rest day.
Defensive end Aaron Donald (back) was one of four players who missed practice a second consecutive day.
Cornerback Jaylen Watson (shoulder) and tight ends Colby Parkinson (knee/shoulder) and Terrance Ferguson (ankle) also didn’t practice again.
Receiver Puka Nacua (hip) remained limited Thursday.
Safety Kam Kinchens (hamstring), cornerback Josh Wallace (shoulder) and inside linebacker Nate Landman (shoulder) also were limited again.
Eagles linebacker Zack Baun (concussion) and wide receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring) remained out of Thursday’s practice.
Wide receiver Hollywood Brown (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee) and offensive tackle Fred Johnson (knee) also missed a second consecutive practice. All three missed Monday’s loss to the Bears.
Running back Will Shipley (foot) returned to a limited practice after missing Wednesday.
Defensive tackle Jordan Davis (calf) and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (calf, elbow) were again limited participants.
Linebacker Jihaad Campbell (knee) returned to full participation Thursday after limited work Wednesday.
The Eagles added safety Marcus Epps (groin) to the injury report as a limited participant.
If gambling is permitted freely on sporting events, normal incidents of the game such as bad snaps, dropped passes, turnovers, penalties, and play calling inevitably will fuel speculation, distrust, and accusations of point-shaving or game-fixing.
Commissioner Roger Goodell uttered those words, back when the NFL hated gambling. With the league now getting rich(er) from its association with sportsbooks, it needs to be thinking about how those “normal incidents of the game” can create problems, if they’re not handled properly.
Transparency, obviously, is critical. For a level of the sport that prides itself on setting the agenda, it has fallen woefully behind the UFL and multiple college conferences when it comes to peeling back the officiating curtain and letting the fans understand why certain calls are made.
A separate potential exists for unforced errors. The NFL has made one, in two different respects.
First, assuming that someone from the league did indeed tell Rams coach Sean McVay that defensive pass interference shouldn’t have been called on L.A. cornerback Josh Wallace with the game on the line, why would the league do this? Beyond the fact that the league has thrown the official who made the call under the bus, this wasn’t an objective mistake.
Pass interference is a judgment call. It’s discretionary. And the DPI foul appeared to fall within that band of discretion — especially since it seemed to us to be the right call, given that Wallace used his forearm to shove Broncos receiver Pat Bryant as the pass was arriving.
Second, was McVay authorized to tell the world that the league had acknowledged an error (if the league truly did)? Those communications are confidential. Last year, when Ravens coach John Harbaugh disclosed that the league acknowledged an objective blunder on an unnecessary roughness call arising from a hit on Pittsburgh’s long snapper, Harbaugh expressly said he had permission from the league to share that information.
McVay didn’t say that. It’s possible he ran afoul of the league’s expectation that such discussions won’t be disclosed.
Given the clear connection between the call and the outcome, the NFL shouldn’t want a head coach to state that the league office admitted to a mistake. What’s next? A refund of all moneyline bets on the Rams?
It’s one thing for a normal incident of the game to fuel the tinfoil-hat crowd. It’s quite another for an abnormal decision to be made to admit that a plausibly accurate subjective decision was wrong. Beyond fueling conspiracy theories, it could spark a long line of losing bettors who will demand a refund.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford is closing in on a unique achievement in NFL history.
Stafford has 147 touchdown passes since he was traded to the Rams in 2021, and if he throws three more, he’ll be the first player in NFL history with 150 or more touchdown passes on two different teams.
In his 12 years with the Lions, Stafford threw 282 touchdown passes.
Stafford is sixth in NFL history with 429 career touchdown passes. Only Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre are ahead of him.
The Rams are banged up in advance of Sunday’s key game at the Eagles.
Five players didn’t practice on Wednesday. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald skipped the session with a back issue. Cornerback Jaylen Watson’s Week 3 shoulder injury caused him to miss practice on Wednesday. Tight ends Colby Parkinson (knee/shoulder) and Terrance Ferguson (ankle) also didn’t practice.
Receiver Davante Adams took the day off, with the team dubbing it “rest.” At the end of a long catch and run against Denver, he seemed to pull up. Still, there was no calf or hamstring injury disclosed. (Adams missed the final three games of the 2025 season with a hamstring injury.)
Receiver Puka Nacua was officially limited with what continues to officially be called a hip injury. In reports, it’s often called a groin problem.
The 1-2 Rams, after playing the 2-1 Eagles, host the 3-0 Bill on Monday night to cap Week 5.
The Eagles were missing several players at Wednesday’s practice, including linebacker Zack Baun.
Baun missed practice with a concussion. He played 66-of-72 defensive snaps in Monday night’s loss to the Bears and the short week leaves him with less time to clear concussion protocol in time to face the Rams.
Wide receiver DeVonta Smith (hamstring), wide receiver Hollywood Brown (ankle), tight end Dallas Goedert (knee), offensive tackle Fred Johnson (knee), and running back Will Shipley (foot) were also out of practice. Brown, Johnson, and Goedert all missed the loss to the Bears.
Linebacker Jihaad Campbell (knee), defensive tackle Jordan Davis (calf), and defensive tackle Moro Ojomo (calf, elbow) were all limited participants. Running back Tank Bigsby (abdoment), defensive tackle Jalen Carter (wrist), wide receiver Darius Cooper (knee), linebacker Jonathan Greenard (pectoral), and defensive tackle Byron Young (toe) were full participants.
The Rams got wide receiver Puka Nacua back on the practice field Wednesday, but they were missing an important part of their defense.
Head coach Sean McVay said that defensive tackle Aaron Donald would sit out their first practice ahead of Sunday’s game against the Eagles. McVay declined to speculate about whether Donald is at any risk of missing the game in Philadelphia.
“Just taking it a day at a time,” McVay said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com. “I wouldn’t want to say anything of that nature yet, but I think the back’s a little bit sore. And he’s as tough as it gets, and so I’ll continue to have updates as the week goes.”
Donald did not play in Week 1 as he was still ramping up after deciding to come out of retirement late in the summer. He had four tackles, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit in the last two games.
The game-changing pass interference call on Rams cornerback Josh Wallace was a bad call, according to Rams head coach Sean McVay.
McVay said today that the league office told him pass interference should not have been called on Wallace.
The penalty was huge, as it negated what would have been Wallace’s interception with 1:09 remaining in the game and the Rams leading 26-23. Instead of the Rams getting the ball back and almost certainly winning, the penalty gave the Broncos first-and-goal, setting up a touchdown and a 30-26 Broncos win.
Wallace did make contact with Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant, although it was the kind of contact that frequently goes un-called, and Bryant also made contact with Wallace and could have been flagged for offensive pass interference. Bryant acknowledged that he flopped to sell the call.
The controversial call was one of the biggest penalties of this NFL season. And, according to McVay, the NFL now says it was a flag that should not have been thrown.
It looks like wide receiver Puka Nacua will be back in the Rams’ lineup this week.
Nacua has missed the last two games and the last two weeks of practice with what’s been referred to as both a hip and a groin injury, but head coach Sean McVay said at a press conference that he will take part in Wednesday’s practice on a limited basis. McVay also said that he expects Nacua to play against the Eagles in Philadelphia on Sunday.
That will be a welcome development for the Rams as they try to even their record at 2-2.
Konata Mumpfield had four catches for 93 yards and a touchdown against the Broncos in Week 3, but Davante Adams has carried a heavy load with Nacua out and the Rams’ overall offensive capabilities will be raised if they have both of the wideouts on the field this weekend.
Sunday night’s instant classic between the Rams and Broncos didn’t start that way. And a lopsided first half, which had L.A. leading Denver 16-0, may have resulted in fewer viewers sticking around for the fireworks.
An average of 20.8 million watched the game on NBC and Peacock.
It’s the third straight year in which the first four NBC games surpassed 20 million. Still, the quality of the teams involved and the thrilling nature of the finish suggest it should have been higher.
By way of comparison, the Chiefs-Giants Sunday night game from Week 3 in 2025 averaged 25.3 million. While the final score was lopsided (the Chiefs won, 22-9), the score at the half was 9-6. And it was a one-score game until the final points were scored with 6:03 to play.
For regular-season games, plenty of factors determine the viewership. After a slate of exciting Sunday afternoon games, it would have been very easy for plenty of fans to check out when it seemed after the first two quarters that the Rams would win easily.
Those who stuck around got rewarded for it.
