The Rams’ tight end depth has been tested in the last two weeks. Tyler Higbee suffered a neck injury in Week 13 against the Cleveland Browns and was forced to miss Sunday’s game in Baltimore. His replacement, Hunter Long, went down with an MCL injury in the first half of Sunday’s loss and will now miss the rest of the season.
Rookie Davis Allen played more snaps on Sunday than he had in the entire season up to that point, and while he delivered a great performance with four catches for 50 yards and a touchdown, the Rams expect to get Higbee back in Week 15.
“Hopefully we’ll get Tyler back this week. That’s the expectation. That’s the goal,” McVay said. “Still have Brycen Hopkins who has done a lot of good things for us as well. We’ll take it a day at a time. We’re kind of just now in the last couple hours just getting all this information and then you start to sort through your plans accordingly.”
The Rams had previously made Hopkins a healthy scratch in recent weeks, leaning on Long and Allen behind Higbee. But with Long going down and Higbee banged up, expect to see Hopkins active on game days moving forward.
Allen should remain a key part of the equation, too, especially after putting together the game he had on Sunday. But the Rams will be happy to get Higbee back from injury, hopefully this week.