Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford wants fans to understand what player injuries really mean.
Stafford said he personally felt the impact from learning Rams receiver Davante Adams will miss most of the rest of the season, and it means a lot more than just his impact on fantasy football teams.
“Like Davante, disappointed for those guys,” Stafford said. “Everybody sees these and they’re on their fantasy team or whatever, and they’re like, ‘I gotta trade a guy in and out now.’ And we’re like, ‘That guy’s worked his ass off for eight months to get this opportunity and it’s unfortunate he doesn’t get to do what he loves to do.’ So I feel more for our guys than I do for anybody else, and I know the work that they put into it, to be out here doing what they love. So that hurts me for them.”
Stafford said one of the things motivating him to play hard in the weeks ahead is wanting the Rams to still be in playoff contention when Adams, Myles Garrett and other injured teammates return.
“I feel even more a responsibility to be as good as I can to be help us continue to win,” Stafford said. “Some of those guys, they’re gonna have opportunities to hopefully come back and play for us, make sure that when they come back and play for us it’s meaningful.”
Stafford said he hopes people realize the true impact of injuries is on players like Adam, who desperately want to be able to play and currently can’t.
“Disappointed for him,” Stafford said. “I know how hard he works to be out there for us, and when he’s not able to do that it tears him up.”
Rams Clips
Rams wide receiver Davante Adams was placed on injured reserve this week and his path back to the field will include a visit to the operating room.
Head coach Sean McVay told reporters on Wednesday that Adams will have a “cleanup” procedure done on his hamstring. McVay said the procedure has not been scheduled yet, but it is expected to be set up in the near future.
“I think they’re going to give it a couple of days and figure out exactly when is the best time,” McVay said, via Stu Jackson of the team’s website.
Adams is expected to be out for 6-10 weeks because of the injury and he was one of four players to land on injured reserve this week. They will also be without defensive tackle Poona Ford, kicker Blake Grupe, and defensive lineman Kobie Turner in the coming weeks.
The Rams put a player on injured reserve for the fourth time this week on Wednesday.
Defensive lineman Kobie Turner was the player taken off of the active roster this time. Turner has a groin injury and will miss at least four games while he recovers.
Wide receiver Davante Adams, defensive tackle Poona Ford, and kicker Blake Grupe are the other players who have landed on the list this week. Ford and Grupe will not return this season while Adams is expected to miss 6-10 weeks with his hamstring injury.
The Rams also announced that they have signed linebacker Darryl Peterson off of their practice squad. Peterson has appeared in one game and played three special teams snaps this season.
The Rams placed tight end Terrance Ferguson on injured reserve with an ankle injury on Oct. 2. That makes him eligible to return to practice next week.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Ferguson is not ready, and “it will take some time” before his 21-day return-to-practice window opens.
Ferguson left the Week 3 game against the Broncos with his injury.
He has seven catches for 63 yards and a touchdown.
The 2025 second-round pick made 11 catches for 231 yards as a rookie.
Wide receiver Davante Adams is expected to miss the next 6-10 weeks after rupturing his hamstring in last Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals and the Rams moved him off of the active roster on Tuesday.
The Rams announced that Adams and defensive tackle Poona Ford have been placed on injured reserve. Ford is going to miss the rest of the season with a triceps injury.
The only corresponding move was the previously reported signing of kicker Brandon McManus. He replaces Blake Grupe, who was placed on injured reserve Monday due to a torn ACL.
Adams had 30 catches for 480 yards and four touchdowns, so his loss leaves a sizable hole across from Puka Nacua at the top of the team’s receiving corps. Konata Mumpfield, Tutu Atwell, and Jordan Whittington have 13 combined catches for the Rams this season.
Ford had 15 tackles and a tackle for loss while appearing in all six games this season. Kobie Turner is also expected to miss extended time with a groin injury, but he has not been placed on injured reserve at this point.
The Rams have found a new kicker.
According to multiple reports, veteran Brandon McManus has agreed to join Los Angeles.
McManus, 35, was most recently with the Packers last season. He made 24-of-30 field goals and 32-of-33 extra points in 14 regular season games. But in the playoff loss to Chicago, he missed two field goals and an extra point, leading the Packers to move on in the offseason.
McManus is a Super Bowl champion, having won it with Denver to cap the 2015 season. He made all 10 field goals and all three extra points in that postseason run.
In 186 career regular-season games, McManus has made 82.0 percent of his field goals and 97.4 percent of his extra points.
Los Angeles placed kicker Blake Grupe on injured reserve on Monday after he suffered a torn ACL during Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. The club had released Harrison Mevis last week after a rough start to the season.
The Rams will be on the road to face the Raiders in Week 7.
Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford lost his fourth start of the season on Sunday. When he loses his fifth, he’ll reach a career milestone he’d prefer not to have.
Stafford has a career record of 122-122-1 as a starting quarterback. Those 122 losses are the second-most in NFL history, behind only Vinny Testaverde, who went 90-123-1. With another loss, Stafford will tie Testaverde for the most ever, and with two more losses, Stafford has the record all to himself.
Once Stafford breaks the record, it will be a long time before anyone else comes close. The next 10 quarterbacks on the career losses list are all retired: Eli Manning with 117, Drew Brees with 114, Brett Favre with 112, Philip Rivers with 109, Matt Ryan with 109, Fran Tarkenton with 109, Archie Manning with 101, Warren Moon with 101, Norm Snead with 100 and Kerry Collins with 99.
There are some great, Hall of Fame quarterbacks on that list. And that points to a paradox with the record for most quarterback losses: You have to be pretty good to get it. A terrible quarterback could never lost 100 games because a terrible quarterback gets cut long before he reaches 100 losses. Only quarterbacks who are good enough to start for many years have a chance to set the NFL record for career losses.
Stafford has been good enough to start for 18 years, playing on some bad Lions teams and going 74-90-1 during his first 12 seasons in the NFL, and then going 48-32 with the Rams. He’s losing more this year than anyone expected, and it’s likely that soon he’ll have lost more games than any quarterback, ever.
In his first, and only, game with the Rams, kicker Blake Grupe suffered a torn ACL while making a tackle during a kick return. Which leaves the Rams without a kicker. For the second straight week.
On Monday, coach Sean McVay told reporters that the Rams will be adding a new kicker very soon.
“We’re in the process,” McVay said. "[Assistant General Manager] John McKay, [special-teams coordinator] Bubba [Ventrone], [General Manager] Les Snead, those guys are working on some different options. Certainly, we’ll have something here in the next day or two.”
McVay was also asked about the 156-pound Grupe’s decision to attempt a shoulder-to-shoulder tackle during the return that resulted in his injury.
"[H]e did an instinctual thing to try to knock him out of bounds,” McVay said. “You’d like us to shoulder leverage the ball up on the front line first so that it doesn’t get spit out to him. But maybe you go lower and avoid the knee injury. It was kind of one of those deals that I felt terrible. He does a great job converting on his kick. Then right after that you’re like, ‘You got to be shitting me.’ I feel terrible for him. The only thing I’d say is maybe go low instead of taking him on high.”
It’s a tough situation for any kicker, especially one who is the smallest player on the field. His choice was to try to apply a shoulder hit or basically get trampled.
For the Rams, it’s a matter of finding the right guy to replace the guy who replaced Harrison Mevis. They’re reportedly working out Brandon McManus and Matt Prater on Tuesday.
U2 performed a memorable halftime show in New Orleans at Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and they will be back on a football field for a brief concert later this year.
Netflix announced on Tuesday that the band will perform at halftime of the NFL’s first ever Thanksgiving Eve game on November 25. The game will be at SoFi Stadium with the Rams hosting the Packers.
“There’s a reason U2 has headlined stadiums for decades: they don’t just perform, they deliver iconic moments audiences remember forever,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in a statement. “We’re thrilled that they’ll bring that same magic to the NFL stage on Netflix. It’s going to be an unforgettable night for football fans and Netflix members worldwide.”
Netflix has carried Christmas games the last two seasons and halftime shows for those contests have featured artists like Beyonce and Snoop Dogg, so they may have more to announce ahead of the two games they’ll be broadcasting on the holiday this year.
After Sunday’s loss to the previously 1-4 Cardinals, Rams running back Kyren Williams had a simple explanation for the team’s inconsistency on offense.
“Probably because I’m not out there,” Williams said in the locker room.
On Monday, coach Sean McVay was asked whether he has spoken to Williams about his remarks.
“I have,” McVay told reporters. “He brought it up to me. I wasn’t aware of it. He’s such an energy for us. He was emotional after the game. I know this guy’s heart. He wants to make sure that he’s influencing and effecting positive change. I think what he said it was more of, ‘I just always want to try to be that spark.’
“He was frustrated after the game, but his teammates know what he’s about. When he explained it to me, I totally understood where he was coming from. He’s a great leader for us. I think the way that it was interpreted was not what his intentions were. I know his teammates and I felt that way. He actually brought that up to me on his own. I was not aware of it until he brought it up to me.”
Against the Cardinals, Williams was on the field for 42 snaps, or 72 percent of the total workload. Blake Corum had 16 snaps, or 28 percent.
Williams had 10 carries for 50 yards, and Corum had nine for 42. (Williams had three catches for 17 yards, and Corum had two for 18 and a touchdown.)
Through six games, Williams’s usage rate is at 71 percent, with 110 touches for 610 yards. Corum stands at 27 percent, with 56 touches for 314 yards.
The concern, then, doesn’t seem to be just playing time. Corum gets the ball more frequently when he plays — 47.45 percent of the time. Williams gets the ball 35.94 percent of the time he’s on the field.
Either way, Williams said what he said. And, as McVay explained it, Williams raised it with McVay and explained himself.
