Los Angeles Rams Feeling 'Domino Effect' Of Injuries? Not This Time, Sean McVay Says
The Los Angeles Rams entered last season looking to defend their Super Bowl 56 title, but stumbled to a 5-12 finish in large part thanks to injuries.
Injuries came early and often for the Rams in 2022, derailing their season before it could even really get off the ground. Key players such as Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Allen Robinson missed extended time late in the season. Even Aaron Donald, who was essentially the NFL's Iron Man throughout his career, missed six games with an injury.
Those injuries eventually became too much to handle, and it led to a downward spiral near the end of the year. While the Rams' injury problem isn't quite as bad this season, Stafford potentially missing time again is cause for concern. That said, coach Sean McVay doesn't believe the injuries will spiral out of control like they did last season.
“Man, we've been here before," McVay told reporters on Friday. "We're not going to do that. I don't believe we have that in our locker room. I do look at it as an opportunity of, okay, hey it's really important to those other guys that might get that opportunity and how can we pour into them and allow them to be able to shine in their talents to be able to show themselves with an enjoyment for cutting it loose, going and competing and making sure that this is always a blessing and never a burden for us.”
Right now, the Rams have five players on injured reserve, with the most notable one being running back Karen Williams. L.A. also has two players ruled out for Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers, five more listed as questionable and five others listed on the injury report.
Every team has to deal with injuries each season, and the Rams got particularly unlucky last year. While their injury report hasn't been exactly clean this season, it's a far cry from what it was the year before.