Rams QB Matthew Stafford Updates Injury Status: 'Right Where I Want To Be'

Matthew Stafford is progressing nicely through his injury recovery.

Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford's health is one of the biggest storylines of training camp this summer. 

And according to Stafford himself after the first week of camp, things are progressing nicely.

“It's coming along. I’m kind of right where I want to be and just continue to get it feeling better. Get it stronger," Stafford said on Saturday. "You just lose those reps through the offseason and [I’m] trying to gain some of those reps back at the moment. As far as things different, piecing this thing together every year is a little bit different. So, yeah, there's different challenges. We go from there.” 

Rams coach Sean McVay echoed Stafford's comments about his recovery as well and seems very confident in what he has seen from the veteran thus far.

He also noted that it is a process, and it will take time before his captain is truly back to full speed.

“He looks good. We're building up," McVay said. "It's like anything else. Anytime that you take as much time off as he did and you're getting back into football shape in general and throwing. There’s certain things that we’ll continue to look at, but I think he's done a nice job through camp.”

Stafford is in the final stages of his recovery from an offseason procedure to repair an elbow injury that he dealt with throughout the end of last season, including during the Rams' Super Bowl-winning run. 

It was an injury that has taken some time to rehab and forced him to watch from the sidelines during OTAs and minicamp while his team worked on the field without him. 

However, Stafford did find some positives in that situation, which allowed him to try and find other ways to improve 'above the neck.'

“It wasn't fun. I'd much rather be out there competing, doing what I love to do and throwing the ball and all that kind of stuff. But I like to think that I'm constantly thinking and analyzing things, whether I'm in the play, throwing it, or if I'm standing on the sidelines. So I don't know that I got much extra out of it. But it was really good, like Sean [McVay] likes to say, ‘above the neck stuff’ where we were able to save some legs on some guys in a lot of instances, but still, really stress guys." 

The plan thus far in camp has been to ease Stafford back into action at a slow pace, making sure they don't push too hard before he is ready. 

The good thing for the Rams, however, is that McVay and Stafford have an uncanny connection to one another in the offense, and Stafford still taking the right approach and asserting command of the offense from a mental standpoint.

“He's got great command mentally on what we're doing. His ability to give feedback and have an understanding," McVay said. "You talk about us being on the same page without even having to really say anything... He's done everything that he could control to take the right steps. I know he's working as hard as he possibly can to feel good physically and with him as our leader, we're in good shape.”

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You can follow Matt Galatzan on Twitter @MattGalatzan

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