Getty Los Angeles Rams linemen run onto the field against the Arizona Cardinals in a 2020 game.
To prevent future thumb injuries in the quarterback department, the Los Angeles Rams gave the “thumbs up” to add an extra layer for their linemen: Helmet padding.
Ram offensive and defensive linemen were seen with skull padding over their shells on Wednesday. This comes off the heels of what happened with Matthew Stafford on Monday, when the Rams’ starting signal-caller banged his thumb on a defensive lineman’s helmet, leaving his thumb with a contusion that nearly sidelined him for Tuesday’s practice.
Rams beat reporter Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic tweeted out a picture of the new equipment that arrived for the Rams before Wednesday’s camp session at UC Irvine’s Crawford Field.
Soft-shell skulls for OL/DL helmets today; that rush-order must have arrived
ESPN Rams reporter Lindsey Thiry also got a social media pic of Rams offensive linemen with the new helmet feature.
Rams offensive linemen also are sporting padded protection on the outside of their helmets.
This clip of Darrell Henderson catching out of the backfield shows some of the Rams offensive linemen wearing a blue padding over their helmets.
Savage szn 😤 @DarrellH8
The Reason Behind the Change
Head coach Sean McVay may have shown a calm demeanor when he saw his QB1 leave Monday’s practice early. But still, the fifth-year head coach wants to prevent a future scene like that with Stafford or any of his other QB’s.
“The heightened sense of urgency based on what happened the other day (was the reason),” McVay told the L.A. media when asked about the new soft shells after practice.
Sure, the trench representatives at Rams practice may not take a full liking to the new fashion statement. But it’s all for safety precautions as McVay pointed out, and the linemen understand why.
“Better safety,” McVay said. “No swag with those things on, but hey, we’ll be safe and smart. And you know, guys were great about it because they understand exactly why.”
The Shells Can Also Prevent Injuries Among Linemen
McVay adds that the new shells aren’t just meant to prevent QB fingers getting dinged up during 11-on-11 passing drills. The new material can help reduce a certain injury among linemen too.
“It’s kind of the concussion preventative maintenance,” McVay explained. “But also most importantly, what happened the other day. You know, it was just with the quarterbacks finishing over the top, coming down on those helmets, that’ll definitely soften the blow and you don’t have to worry about, ‘Did our quarterback break his finger?’ And things like that, hopefully.”
Linemen are often colliding head first in the trenches, so the shells can give a softer impact after contact is initiated.
Overall, McVay is encouraged about seeing finger and head-related injuries lessen with the soft shells now in place as training camp continues and three preseason Ram games on the horizon this month.
“I think it would be totally my fault if for whatever reason, something like that (Stafford’s thumb injury) happened again and we have a thing in place that we can kind of at least be preventative and smart about it. And so I thought that was the smart thing, and our guys were always great when there’s a reason why,” McVay said.