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The latest setback for the Los Angeles Rams? It was revealed from the mouth of head coach Sean McVay on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 9 in Thousand Oaks: Matthew Stafford is injured.
The starting quarterback and Super Bowl 56 winner was revealed to have a concussion by McVay.
“We’ll keep Matthew Stafford out. We’ll put him into concussion protocol,” McVay told the L.A. media, with Stafford going into protocol on Tuesday, November 8 per a Rams team spokesperson.
How Long Will Stafford be Out?
McVay explained that a careful evaluation led to Stafford being diagnosed with the head ailment and is now listed as day-to-day.
“What ended up happening was, [vice president of sports medicine and performance] Reggie [Scott] and his group kind of doing their cleanup after the game. You ask the right questions and you do the right follow ups, and they determined that was the best thing for him,” McVay said regarding placing Stafford into protocol. “That’s kind of where we’re at with it.”
McVay adds the most important part in handling Stafford from here.
“It’s more important about the person then the player in these types of things as we know,” McVay said. “Nobody is more of a competitor and wanting to be out there with his teammates than Matthew. He’s in the protocol, so we’ll take it one day at a time with him. And that’s what our medical experts determined based on some of the things they’ve gathered, it was the smart and the right course of action.”
McVay adds that the injury occurred in the 16-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Stafford got sacked four times in the loss to the Bucs. However, the medical staff led by Scott did their routine checkups after the game and determined the injury.
Who Takes QB1 Duties if Stafford Doesn’t go
If Stafford is not cleared, John Wolford will handle the QB1 reins for the Rams in Week 10 against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, November 13.
It’s not the first time Wolford has had to step in for the Rams before.
He started in one game during the 2020 season: When he stepped in for former Rams QB Jared Goff in the season finale against the Cards. Wolford went 22-of-38 passing for 231 yards and threw one interception, but guided the Rams to the 18-7 win. The following week during the NFC wildcard playoffs at Seattle, Wolford completed 3-of-6 passes for 29 yards before Goff took over in the 30-20 road upset of the Seahawks.
During the 2021 season and serving as the No. 2 behind Stafford, Wolford saw limited action in games against the New York Giants, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars.
Additionally if Stafford isn’t cleared to play, it’ll end a streak of 45 straight starts — 16 during his final season with the Detroit Lions and then 29 with the Rams, which includes the playoffs and Super Bowl 56.
Before the regular season, Stafford had been dealing with elbow tendinitis in his right arm — which notably saw him wearing a sleeve over his throwing arm during 2022 training camp in Irvine. He also didn’t throw during the Rams’ voluntary OTA (organized team activities) period in May 2022 due to an elbow infection in the same arm.
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