LOS ANGELES — Despite the original expectation that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford would return to practice on Monday, the veteran was held out again after informing the coaching staff that he was still feeling soreness in his back, head coach Sean McVay said.
Stafford, 37, worked out on Saturday, throwing upwards of 60 passes, and felt good enough that the Rams greenlit his return to individual drills at practices. Stafford has missed all of training camp with an aggravated disc that required an epidural shot.
McVay said the Rams don’t want to set any expectations for Stafford’s timeline moving forward, with the coach adding that he isn’t sure that if Stafford woke up feeling better on Tuesday if that would he would participate in that day’s practice.
“Like we said, we’re going to be flexible and we’re going to be fluid. More than anything, I feel for Matthew because of how much he wants to be out there and feel good,” McVay said. “Sometimes when you set expectations, they’re not met, what’s the first response? There’s frustration, and that’s ok to feel that way but how can we move forward accordingly and most importantly support a guy that when he gets out here, we’re going to be really excited about it. But … I’ll defer to the experts, I’ll defer to Matthew.”
During practice, Stafford entered a silver trailer from the company Ammortal and underwent red-light therapy. Ammortal advertises itself as a “wellness device that aims to optimize human performance and promote holistic health through a combination of non-invasive technologies.”
McVay said the equipment was brought in by Rams VP of sports medicine and performance Reggie Scott for the entire team’s use, not exclusively for Stafford.
Stafford has a history of back injuries, including two fractured vertebrae suffered during his time with the Lions and a spinal cord contusion that ended his 2022 season with the Rams.
McVay has expressed a lack of concern about Stafford’s injury up until this week, but allowed some uncertainty in his press conference on Monday.
“I think the fair answer is I’m going to take it a day at a time as well. Because I can’t be 27 days from now in Houston. We have to be able to have agility and flexibility,” McVay said. “So I think the most important thing is, No. 1, my job is to support him, put my arm around him and let him know, ‘Hey, I love you, I’m sorry that we’re going through this, let’s keep a positive mindset and let’s continue to attack this thing and try to be able to get our hands around it,’ so that he can feel as good as possible when we open up against Houston. I do think it’s important to be able to get some work in, but not at the expense of following the plan that we talked about.”
McVay said that in conversations with Scott and team spinal surgeon Robert Watkins, the possibility of surgery for Stafford has not been raised.
“That hasn’t been a conversation that we’ve had,” McVay said. “I haven’t gone down that road yet in terms of those types of conversations. 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 yet.”
Last week, McVay said he was confident that Stafford would be able to play in a game if this were the regular season. But the coach was not as definitive when asked about that possibility on Monday.
“I don’t know that. I think he still probably would be able to play, just based on how he feels,” McVay said. “I mean, he looked damn good throwing the other day. Nobody’s tougher than him and has overcome more stuff than he has. We also want to see if we can have him feeling as good as possible because it’s super important and I feel like that’s a real responsibility that we take as coaches.”
Injury report
It wasn’t all bad injury news for the Rams on Monday. Defensive tackle Kobie Turner (back), outside linebacker Jared Verse (knee), defensive tackle Poona Ford (groin), safety Kam Curl (ankle), linebacker Nate Landman (calf) and cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon (calf) were all back at practice and participating in 11-on-11.