Category: Latest Rams news

Jalen Ramsey has LCL injury, Darrell Henderson needs ankle surgery

Sean McVay provided a few updates on injured Rams coming out of Saturday’s loss.

A few Rams suffered injuries in Saturday’s loss to the 49ers, including two starters. Jalen Ramsey suffered a knee injury in the first quarter, but he played through it and didn’t miss a snap despite being listed as doubtful to return. Bobby Evans left briefly with a hip injury, while Darrell Henderson only played two snaps before hurting his ankle.

On Sunday, coach Sean McVay provided updates on those three players and the severity of their injuries.

Jalen got a knee banged up. We’re continuing to evaluate and see how – he ended up continuing to play through it, but we’re going to look at just seeing how he feels as the week progresses,” McVay said. “It’s his LCL. Just figuring out the specifics of, ‘What type of grade strain is it?’ Then I’ll be able to have some further updates for you as he’s talking with the doctors, I get a chance to talk to those guys and then we’ll have some further information for you guys later this week.”

Ramsey will get an MRI done on his knee and the Rams “want to be as smart as possible” with the injury. In other words, they’re likely to keep him out of Sunday’s season finale, which has no playoff implications after the Rams were eliminated from contention.

Henderson is going to have surgery on his ankle, which will likely land him on IR for the final week of the season.

“He ended up tweaking it on his first carry and then felt it on his second carry. He’s going to need to get that thing cleaned up, so we’re probably going to put him on IR,” McVay said.

The coach added that it’s a high ankle sprain and is unstable, “so he’ll need to get surgery.” McVay doesn’t expect him to be out very long, however.

“The specifics of that – it’s not something that’s too evasive,” he added. “It is something that will require to go in there and get it cleaned up. When he gets back – I don’t think it’ll be anything too long that will force him to miss a bunch of time.”

Evans is considered “day-to-day” after suffering a hip pointer, according to McVay, and “he should be OK.”

Andrew Whitworth intends to play in 2020: ‘We’ll see if it works out’

Andrew Whitworth intends to return to the field next season, though his contract is set to expire.

Andrew Whitworth is the oldest offensive lineman in the NFL, and if all goes according to plan, he’ll keep that title in 2020. He’s in the final year of his contract with the Rams but he wants to continue playing next season.

Whether that’s with the Rams or not remains to be seen, but his intention is to return to the field next season.

Whitworth, 38, has spent the last three seasons with the Rams after beginning his career with the Bengals. Although he struggled to begin this season, he’s turned it around and played at a high level recently.

He made the Pro Bowl in 2017 with the Rams and was a first-team All-Pro that year, but he hasn’t made either squad since. If Whitworth retires or doesn’t return to Los Angeles in 2020, it’ll leave a gaping hole at left tackle for the Rams, which Joseph Noteboom will have a chance to fill.

Jared Goff: Pick-six is going to ‘eat at me for a while’

Jared Goff commented on his costly pick-six Saturday night, which he won’t forget anytime soon.

With less than one minute to play in the half and the Rams leading the 49ers 21-17, Sean McVay was trying to increase the margin before the break. The Rams were moving the ball on the drive and had reached the 48-yard line, but Jared Goff made a costly error that he wishes he could have back.

Finding no receivers open, he checked down to his running back Malcolm Brown. Only, Fred Warner was lurking, read the play perfectly and picked it off, returning it 46 yards for a touchdown.

The Rams’ lead had evaporated in the blink of an eye, with San Francisco flipping the momentum. After the game, Goff admitted blame for the terrible decision and throw.

“That’s a big mistake I can’t make there,” he said. “It’s a bad one – something that’ll eat at me for a while. End of the half, it just was not a good – just got to be more careful with the ball. Just got to be more careful and take care of it in that situation. Something I’ll learn from, something I’ll get better from.”

Goff has one more opportunity to end the season on a high note, though the Rams don’t have anything to play for in Week 17 against the Cardinals. McVay wants to finish the year with a winning record, even if they can’t make the postseason.

Goff would like to do the same, but he’s got plenty of work to do this offseason that’s far more important than winning a meaningless game in Week 17.

“It’s extremely disappointing,” Goff said of the season. “You never envision something like this when you start the year. It’s not even close to the standard we want to hold. It’s sickening.”

Taylor Rapp takes blame for costly blown coverage vs. 49ers

Taylor Rapp knows it was his mistake on Sanders’ 46-yard catch.

Rookie mistakes haven’t plagued Rams safety Taylor Rapp this season, but he certainly made one on Saturday night against the San Francisco 49ers. On third-and-16 with about a minute to play, Rapp and Jalen Ramsey had a miscommunication in the secondary that led to a 46-yard gain by Emmanuel Sanders.

It set up Robbie Gould’s game-winning field goal, which he made and eliminated the Rams from playoff contention.

After the loss, Jalen Ramsey made it clear that Rapp wasn’t in the right spot, expecting the rookie safety to help over the top against Sanders. Rapp was nowhere to be found, drifting toward the sideline as Sanders went to the deep middle.

“It wasn’t me and Eric. E-Dub was on the other side. It was me and Rapp,” Ramsey said. “We as in a form of two-man. We had an adjustment check to it because they was condensed splits. I played my technique, trusting that he was going to be over the top. And he wasn’t. That’s just what happened.”

Rapp accepted the blame for blowing the coverage and allowing Sanders to get open, admitting his mistake of not playing over the top to defend the deep pass.

“It’s tough when I could have done a better job of getting over the top,” said Rapp, via the Whittier Daily News. “I was supposed to get over the top a little bit.

“No communication.”

The Rams had almost no chance to make the playoffs entering Week 16, needing to win out and have the Vikings lose their last two. However, a win would’ve at least kept them alive in the playoff hunt, but now they’re heading home with an 8-7 record and a lot of reflecting to do.

6 milestones and records set by Rams players vs. 49ers

A few Rams players etched their names into the record books on Saturday night.

The 2019 season is winding down with the Rams having just one game left to play. They’ve been eliminated from playoff contention and will just try to finish with a winning record for the third straight year next week against Arizona.

The Rams’ 34-31 loss to the 49ers on Saturday night was a crushing one, especially with the way it ended; San Francisco converted twice on third-and-16 on its game-winning drive.

As deflating and disappointing as the defeat was, it wasn’t all bad for a few Rams players. While they’d much rather win, four players reached milestones and a few even set franchise records.

Here are all the significant numbers and stats that came out of Sunday’s loss to the 49ers.

Tyler Higbee joins rare company with 100-yard game

Higbee finished with 104 yards receiving on Saturday night, giving him four straight 100-yard games. Only two other tight ends have done that in the Super Bowl era, which puts him in elite company.

In his last four games, he has 438 yards on 35 receptions, catching at least seven passes in each one.

Higbee sets new franchise for a TE

Additionally, Higbee set a new franchise record for the most catches by a tight end in a single season. The record was previously held by Pete Holohan, who caught 59 passes in 1988. Higbee has 61 and counting with one game left.

Gurley ties Marshall Faulk’s team record

Gurley has had a remarkable career thus far, scoring 58 times on the ground in his first five seasons. That already ties Faulk’s franchise record, and is more than Steven Jackson and Eric Dickerson had in their careers with the Rams.

Gurley makes history with another 13-TD season

Gurley may not be racking up big yardage numbers, but he’s still finding the end zone consistently. He has 14 touchdowns on the year now, giving him three years in a row with at least that many scores. Gurley has scored 54 times in the last three years.

Jared Goff does something no other Rams QB has

Goff made Rams history with his second straight 4,000-yard season, as he has 4,319 yards in 2019 so far. He needs 370 yards in Week 17 to surpass his total from last season.

Robert Woods gains 1,000 yards in back-to-back years

Woods has been Mr. Consistent for the Rams the last two years, once again eclipsing 1,000 yards receiving. He’s the first Rams wideout to do that in consecutive years since Torry Holt in 2007.

Rams can point to 4 pivotal plays as reasons for loss to 49ers

The Rams’ loss to the 49ers came down to four pivotal plays.

The Rams’ season essentially came to an end on Saturday night, losing 34-31 to the 49ers. The loss eliminated them from playoff contention, giving them no chance to defend their NFC title after reaching the Super Bowl last season.

There were 126 plays run in the game, but four key moments stand out among the rest as reasons for the Rams’ loss. Here are the four biggest plays in the game that led to San Francisco’s victory at Levi’s Stadium.

Jared Goff’s pick-six

For the second week in a row, Goff threw an incredibly costly interception just before the half. He did it against the Cowboys and Dallas scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive, and on Saturday night, he threw a pick-six to Fred Warner on a checkdown to Malcolm Brown.

It was by far his worst decision of the night, flipping the momentum and score before the break.

With just over five minutes in the first half, the Rams were up 21-10 and in complete control of the game. The 49ers scored two unanswered touchdowns – the second of which was Goff’s pick-six – in the final three minutes to go into halftime up 24-21.

It was a deflating a play as there could have been for the Rams, who looked like they were going to roll to a win over San Francisco. At the time, the Rams had a 59% chance to win the game, according to NumberFire. After the pick-six, their win probability dropped to 33%.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Sean McVay: Season-ending loss ‘might be worse’ than Super Bowl

Sean McVay was deflated after the Rams’ loss to the 49ers, which eliminated them from playoff contention.

When the season began, the Los Angeles Rams saw themselves playing into January and possibly even February. They certainly didn’t envision their NFC title defense ending in Week 16.

Sean McVay has always made it clear that anything can happen in the NFL and there are no guarantees in this league, but it’s safe to say he didn’t see this coming. The Rams have officially been eliminated from playoff contention after losing 34-31 to the 49ers on Saturday night.

McVay was dejected and disappointed after the loss, and while he tried to hold his head up high and look toward Week 17 as another opportunity to win, there was no hiding how he felt after the loss.

He told Mike Silver of NFL Network afterwards that this loss might be worse than the Rams’ defeat in Super Bowl LIII.

“It might be worse,” he said. “At least, right now, it feels that way. It’s hard to say. Every single loss, you feel like you lose a piece of your soul.

“It all makes me sick.”

Considering how frustrated and down on himself McVay was after the Rams’ loss to the Patriots in the Super Bowl, it’s shocking to hear him as deflated as he was. He’s typically upbeat and positive even after losses, but this one obviously hurt more than most.

Now, the Rams have one game left before heading into the offseason with several questions still to answer.

Rams Week 16 snap counts: Gerald Everett gets only 4 reps in return

Gerald Everett was a non-factor in Saturday’s 34-31 loss.

Gerald Everett missed three straight games due to a knee injury, but on Saturday night, he was back on the field and healthy once again. He wasn’t utilized very much, however, with Tyler Higbee rolling to three straight 100-yard games.

Higbee extended that streak to four games in a row against the 49ers, while Everett saw his role on offense completely evaporate. Watching the game, it seemed like he was hardly out there. And after looking at the snap counts, that observation held true.

Here’s a look at how much each player was on the field in the Rams’ 34-31 loss, which eliminated them from playoff contention.

Offense

Everett played just four snaps and was targeted once. He was a complete non-factor in the loss, playing less than Josh Reynolds, Johnny Mundt and Malcolm Brown – something that would’ve been hard to fathom at the beginning of the season. Higbee played 89% of the snaps and Mundt 44%.

Cooper Kupp and Brandin Cooks continue to get their playing time reduced by the Rams’ frequency of using 12 personnel. Kupp played just 61% of the snaps, while Cooks was out there for 59%. They were targeted 10 times combined, which is less than Higbee and Woods were targeted each (11). Woods never came off the field.

Bobby Evans missed 10 snaps with a hip injury, being replaced by Chandler Brewer on those plays. Darrell Henderson only played two snaps before exiting with ankle injury.

Pages: Page 1, Page 2

Report: ‘Shakeup’ coming to Rams coaching staff, Gurley may be cap casualty

Major changes are reportedly coming to the Rams’ coaching staff.

The Rams fell well short of expectations this season, being eliminated from playoff contention after their Week 16 loss to the 49ers. Robbie Gould’s 33-yard field goal gave San Francisco the 34-31 victory, sending Sean McVay and the Rams home with little to play for in Week 17 besides their pride.

This is the first time McVay has missed the playoffs in three seasons with Los Angeles, and as a result of this letdown, there could be changes coming to his coaching staff. According to Mike Silver of NFL Network, “multiple sources expect there to be a shakeup on McVay’s coaching staff, perhaps including veteran defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.”

It was reported by Alex Marvez of SiriusXM NFL Radio on Saturday that Phillips may not be back with the team in 2020 with his contract expiring after this season. With Phillips being 72 years old, it wouldn’t be surprising if he called it a career and retired, either.

Silver could also see changes coming to the personnel department and possibly with Todd Gurley being a cap casualty.

There could also be significant turnover in the personnel department. As for the roster, Gurley’s high salary and declining production may make him a cap casualty, and other key players could be traded or released as the organization builds around Goff on offense and star defensive tackle Aaron Donald on defense.

“I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen,” one Rams veteran said Saturday night, “but I’d expect some major changes around here in the next few months.”

It’s hard to imagine Gurley being cut with his contract structured the way it is, since releasing him this offseason would result in a $25.7 million dead cap charge, whereas his cap hit if he’s on the roster would be less at $17.25 million.

It was a season that fell short of expectations for the Rams, but overhauling the roster seems like a difficult premise at the moment.

Sean McVay focused on finishing 2019 season with a winning record

Sean McVay has turned his attention to Week 17.

Sean McVay is an optimist as a coach, always looking at the bright side of things even when a game or season doesn’t go the Rams’ way. This year certainly fell short of expectations for Los Angeles, but McVay is still finding positives despite the Rams being eliminated from playoff contention at 8-7.

Here’s what the coach said after the Rams’ 34-31 loss to the 49ers, making it clear that he wants to finish the season with a winning record of 9-7 despite not being able to make the playoffs.

“Unfortunately, that means our postseason chances are eliminated but I know this: We’ve got an opportunity to finish the season the right way, finish with a winning season and got a bunch of winners in that locker room, and that’s what I expect us to do as we move forward to Week 17 against the Arizona Cardinals,” he said.

The Rams finished last season in the Super Bowl, which is far different from having your playoff chances drop to zero in Week 16 as the Rams did this year. As much as McVay wishes they were playing for another championship, he’s being a realist.

“We’re not gonna do that, but I do trust that we’re made of the right stuff,” he said. “I know that once we get through next week, I can’t wait to attack the offseason, figure out how I can be better.”

The Rams were a longshot to make the playoffs even with a win on Saturday night. McVay and all the players know that, but it doesn’t make the loss any easier to swallow. They’re going to watch the film as usual, but quickly move on and prepare for the Cardinals in Week 17.

“We’re going to look at this film and we’re going to move on and we’re going to do everything we can to finish the season off the right way. To be able to finish with a winning record, that’s the next thing. You always have the playoffs and that’s out the window. ‘Well all right, hey, let’s have some pride. We get 16 opportunities like we’ve talked about. This represents the final game of the season for this team. love those guys in the locker room and want to make sure I do my part to try to have a good performance and cap it off the right way.”