Rams QB Matthew Stafford was supposed to practice for the first time in training camp today after going through a throwing session this weekend to test his injured back.
Instead, Stafford was sidelined yet again. He was spotted off to the side in street clothes and later went into a health pod that the team had on site.
Rams HC Sean McVay, who had told reporters over the weekend about the plan with Stafford, said things changed today when Stafford “didn’t feel good enough” and the Rams didn’t want to push things, per Sarah Barshop. He added the team will be taking things day by day.
Asked whether surgery was on the table, McVay said he and Stafford haven’t discussed it.
“That hasn’t been a conversation that we’ve had,” he said via Barshop. “There’s been a lot of conversations about what’s the best method of how we want to approach it. That hasn’t been something that comes up.”
Stafford has been dealing with a herniated disc in his back for the past few weeks, including getting an epidural and some other interventions.
The Rams have insisted publicly and privately that they’re just being cautious with Stafford and that if it were the regular season, he would be able to play.
Still, a back injury for a quarterback at Stafford’s age is reason enough for concern, let alone the fact that it keeps lingering and holding Stafford out of practices.
Stafford, 37, is a former first-round pick of the Lions, who took him with the No. 1 overall pick out of Georgia in 2009. He was in the final year of a five-year, $76.5 million contract when he and the Lions agreed to a five-year, $135 million extension back in 2017.
Stafford was involved in a blockbuster trade that sent him to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for QB Jared Goff and draft picks in 2021. He signed a four-year extension worth $160 million that included $135 million guaranteed a year later.
The Rams and Stafford later reworked that deal going into the 2024 season, moving money up from the back of the contract. Stafford was due $27 million and $31 million in the final two years of his deal when the two sides reworked his existing contract again in 2025.
In 2024, Stafford appeared in 16 games for the Rams and threw for 3,762 yards while completing 65.8 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
We will have more on Stafford as it becomes available.
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