The Rams placed receiver Cooper Kupp in injured reserve before Week 1. Coach Sean McVay hopes Kupp can return from IR for Week 5, against the Eagles.
“We are hopeful about that,” McVay told reporters on Friday. “I want to be careful to say, but the reason that we put him on IR was so that you know if it’s going to be those four weeks that he’s mandated to be able to miss and then we can take him off of the IR and be available for that fifth week. That was the reason that we made that decision that we did last week because you don’t know what’s going to really come up. It doesn’t put a timetable on really rushing him back, allowing him to be able to go throughout a thorough process. He’s so conscientious and I think he wanted to be out there so bad that sometimes it’s, all right, well let’s protect you from you because you’re such an elite competitor. I want to be careful to put the cart before the horse that they say, but I’m hopeful about that.”
Kupp has suffered a couple of hamstring strains since training camp opened. McVay suggested in advance of Week 1 that there’s potentially a nerve issue at play.
So it’s not a question of just healing the current issue but preventing it from happening again. And that’s really the issue. If/when he returns, how long will he be back?
It just shows how physically demanding the sport is. So many things can go wrong, and it only takes one to keep a guy from playing.