When Rams head coach Sean McVay said today that guard Justin Dedich was out of training camp because he “had a hand accident around the Fourth of July,” it was reasonable to infer that McVay was describing a fireworks accident. But apparently not.
Mike Garafolo reports that Dedich’s injury was not a fireworks accident, Dedich did not lose any fingers, and he will be back to playing in the near future.
That’s much better news than was suggested by McVay’s description, which invoked memories of July 4, 2015, when two different NFL players lost fingers in fireworks accidents. Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul missed half of that season, while Buccaneers cornerback C.J. Wilson’s fireworks injury was career-ending.
Fortunately, Dedich’s injury does not appear to be of that nature, and the Rams can expect him back on the field soon.
Rams Clips
When the Rams announced that guard Justin Dedich would open training camp on the non-football injury list, they did not reveal the nature of that injury. Today they explained it.
Rams head coach Sean McVay said Justin Dedich “had a hand accident around the Fourth of July, and so that’s kind of what’s keeping him out for now.”
McVay didn’t specifically mention fireworks, but that’s the obvious conclusion people will draw from a July 4 hand accident.
During Fourth of July weekend in 2015, two different NFL players lost fingers in fireworks accidents. Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul’s injury caused him to miss half that season, although he had a long career after that, including being a Pro Bowler and Super Bowl champion in Tampa Bay in 2020. Buccaneers cornerback C.J. Wilson also suffered a serious hand injury at Fourth of July 2015 and never played again.
There’s been no word on the severity of Dedich’s injury.
Dedich signed with the Rams as an undrafted rookie out of USC in 2024 and has played in 29 games for them, with nine starts.
UPDATE: Dedich’s injury was reportedly not fireworks-related, and he is expected to return soon.
Aaron Donald may end up coming back to the Rams to play in 2026.
But according to head coach Sean McVay, Donald’s decision isn’t coming soon.
“Here’s what I’ll tell you, we’ve kept in contact,” McVay said in his Tuesday press conference. “He’s feeling good. His training is going really well. But no new news on the front of any imminent decision on whether he’s going to play or not.”
As to where that training is taking place, McVay claimed he wasn’t sure whether or not Donald is using the Rams’ facility in Woodland Hills, as the team is conducting training camp 25 miles south at Loyola Marymount University.
“There’s nobody at the Rams facility right now. Maybe TMZ knows the answer to that,” McVay said, tongue-in-cheek.
We’ll see over the course of the next month or so whether or not Donald actually decides to make a comeback. The Rams will open the season in Australia against the 49ers on Sept. 10.
Myles Garrett is heading into his 10th NFL season, and his first with the Rams. If he has the kind of big year the Rams are hoping for, he could break the NFL record for the most sacks ever in a player’s first 10 seasons.
Through nine years, Garrett has 125.5 career sacks. The record for the most sacks in a player’s first 10 seasons is 145, set by Reggie White in his 10th NFL season, in 1994. So if Garrett gets 20 sacks this season, he’ll break White’s record.
It’s worth noting that the record has an asterisk: Official NFL records for a player’s sack total have only been recorded since 1982. Deacon Jones has the unofficial record, with 155 sacks in his first 10 seasons.
Garrett set the NFL record for sacks in a season last year, when he had 23. So a 20-sack season is possible for him this year.
After Jones and White, Jared Allen has the next-most sacks through 10 seasons, with 128.5. Garrett will almost certainly get the 3.5 sacks he needs to surpass Allen.
Aaron Donald has the proverbial itch.
Will the three-time defensive player of the year come out of retirement to scratch it?
That’s still an open question as the Rams continue with training camp in late July, which General Manager Les Snead addressed during a Monday interview with ESPN Los Angeles.
“This is the first time Aaron’s … probably had the itch to come back, try to do something meaningful — which has been cool to see,” Snead said. “When you retire from the NFL, that’s probably a cliff that’s like, the next chapter, it’s foggy. It’s like, wait a minute, is the next portion of my life going to be as… But it’s interesting with Aaron, he’s really enjoyed these years off and hasn’t necessarily missed the game. He says he’s missed it every now and then, but not enough to say, I want to come back. This is the first time that, you know what, there’s a real itch there.”
The obvious appeal for Donald to come back is to play with fellow multi-time defensive player of the year winner Myles Garrett. If Donald does elect to string up his cleats again, count Snead among those who would appreciate seeing it just for the sake of potential football history.
“It’s almost like, how many times in a lifetime in like this universe thing where, OK, wait a minute, [you get] Myles Garrett, now Aaron Donald wants to come back,” Snead said. “He happens to be still young enough to do it. Like, that doesn’t happen often.
“So, I think I would show up to the game, and it wouldn’t be like you were the G.M. It would be like, wow, this is kind of something I’m watching on Netflix.”
Donald reportedly is going to take his time with making a decision. But it’s clear that the Rams would gladly welcome him back if he wants to play in 2026.
The Rams were among the favorites for Super Bowl LXIII before they traded for Myles Garrett in June and acquiring the defensive player of the year has only pushed expectations for the coming season higher in Los Angeles.
Head coach Sean McVay acknowledged those expectations at the start of training camp while noting that “there’s a lot of stuff in the midst of the journey that we don’t control.” McVay wants the Rams to prioritize the things they do control when it comes to preparing for the season and quarterback Matthew Stafford was in a similar frame of mind when he spoke to reporters on Monday.
Stafford said he wants the team to focus on improving their baseline level of play rather than thinking about how high they can climb if everything falls into place.
“We can’t help but make each other better, [but] pieces of paper and names on a roster, those don’t win football games,” Stafford said, via Greg Beacham of the Associated Press. “Teams and players and groups do. . . . Sean said it the other night, we’ve got potentially a high ceiling, right? We’ve got great players that have done a lot in this league. What can we do to continue to raise our floor, so if I’m off a little bit, we can still go find a way to win a football game? If our defense is off a little bit, we can still find a way to go win a football game. Continuing to raise that floor is something that’s going to be a huge part of our journey this season.”
There are a number of ways that a talented team can get thrown off track over the course of an NFL season. The work that Stafford and the Rams do now can’t eliminate all of them, but anything they can do to pare that number down will help them weather the inevitable curveballs that come their way over the next few months.
The Rams have made a pair of additions and hosted another player for a tryout on Monday.
Per the league’s daily transaction wire, Los Angeles signed guard Bill Murray and defensive back Alex Cook.
Murray entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2020 and has appeared in four regular season games. He was a defensive lineman in college but flipped over to offensive line while with the Patriots early in his pro career.
He has also spent time with the Bears and Colts.
Cook has appeared in 10 career games with two starts, all of which came in 2023 with the Panthers. He has also spent time with the Giants, Bears, and Birmingham Stallions of the UFL.
Additionally, the Rams hosted offensive tackle Tyler McLellan for a tryout.
The Lions are adding a linebacker.
Detroit has agreed to terms with veteran Troy Reeder, according to agency EnterSports Management.
Reeder, 31, has spent most of his career with the Rams since entering the league as an undrafted free agent in 2019. While he played for the Chargers in 2022, every other game he’s played has been with the cross-town team in Los Angeles.
Last year, Reeder appeared in all 17 games with one start, playing 73 percent of the Rams’ special teams snaps and seven percent of defensive snaps. He registered 25 total tackles with two passes defensed.
In all, Reeder has appeared in 106 games with 38 starts, recording 5.0 sacks, two interceptions, 12 passes defensed, and three forced fumbles.
The Rams weren’t in full pads for Sunday’s training camp practice, but they had their full squad on the field and that gave them a sense of how things will look with Myles Garrett at defensive end in 2026.
Defensive coordinator Chris Shula said that the sight “definitely lived up to” the expectations that were created by the trade that brought Garrett to Los Angeles last month. Garrett only did limited work before the end of the offseason program and his first team work since joining the Rams got a strong review from cornerback Trent McDuffie as well.
“When he’s out there, you can just feel his aura,” McDuffie said, via Greg Beachem of the Associated Press. “[It’s just] this aura that this guy has. I mean, he’s gigantic. He’s a monster. But I’m just excited to get him out here and get him loose and get him going, because I know he has a little chip on his shoulder, and I know he’s excited about being here, so I think that just fires everybody else up.”
The Rams’ vision for Garrett includes a lot more than impressive outings on the practice field, but it is a necessary first step toward getting to the places they want to go with the reigning defensive player of the year on their side.
The Rams have a good problem, even if the only good problem is no problem.
Outside expectations are sky-high. Even though the Rams haven’t been to the Super Bowl in five years, they’re the favorite to emerge from the NFC and to win the whole thing.
Coach Sean McVay addressed the high bar the Rams are facing in his Saturday session with reporters.
“The last time I checked, none of that stuff means anything,” McVay said. “It’s what’s great about the league. People care, there’s a lot of attention, but this is the greatest team sport there is. We’ve got to come together as a team. We’ve got to stay humble. There’s a lot of stuff in the midst of the journey that we don’t control, but I think our ability to be connected, to be courageous, to handle the storms when they do come up and be inside out more than ever before is going to be really important.
“But we’re not going to allow the outside expectations to change the way that we approach every day with the way that we work, the way that we enjoy it, have the appropriate mindset and energy. And that’s something that I think is really important for us to represent and I think that’s more felt than anything else. And so that’s what we’re going to do, but none of those things mean anything. They don’t win games, and how can we be present, stack days, and enjoy the opportunity to come together as a team? We’re not going to let external expectations inhibit our ability to go swing and be courageous.”
The challenge is to get the players to ignore the outside chatter, and to accept the fact that, every week, they’ll get the absolute best that every opponent will have to offer.
Even with a wide array of uniforms, the one constant is the target they’ll have on their backs. Along with a schedule that has them in prime time for seven games — and that has them playing on a Wednesday, a Thursday, a Friday, multiple Sundays, and multiple Mondays.
