The Los Angeles Rams placed Van Jefferson on injured reserve ahead of the team’s Week 3 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, meaning that he’ll miss a minimum of four games. With Jefferson needing more time to get 100 percent healthy, Sean McVay iterated that the Rams expect Jefferson to be a full-go after the bye week in Week 7.
“Yeah, it really boiled down to, because we’ve had so many of these injuries, there wasn’t any sort of setback. The goal for us maybe was that it would be in a couple weeks. He had been making really good progress and that’s been in alignment, but there’s a lot of layers to whether we put a guy on IR or not, that’s not exclusive to just that person in particular,” McVay said. “I think when you look at where the bye was going to fall for us, we had to make that decision and designation so that you don’t end up restricting his ability to return after the bye. That really bought him an extra couple weeks. There wasn’t any setbacks, that’s consistent with what I had told you guys. There was a lot of layers to it, but we do expect that to be short term. Originally, we’re thinking kind of Carolina and then I don’t even know who we play when we get back from the bye (San Francisco), but we expect him to be ready to roll when that time comes.”
Back in training camp, Jefferson underwent a knee procedure to clean up a knee issue that bothered him at the end of last season. The Rams said that the third-year wideout would have a chance to be ready for Week 1, but they made it clear that he wouldn’t have a definitive timetable to return.
After being ruled out for the first couple of games, it seemed as if placing Jefferson on injured reserve was always a favorable option, especially with the team’s bye week coming in Week 7. That means that, at the earliest, Jefferson can make his season debut in Week 8 against the San Francisco 49ers.
Without Jefferson on the field, the Rams are clearly lacking a vertical threat in the offense to begin the season. Even though McVay doesn’t want to commit to saying when Jefferson will definitively return, he sounds confident that the former second-round pick will be ready to roll in Week 8.
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