John Johnson III went down with a shoulder injury in the Rams’ Week 2 loss to the Cardinals. It was expected to sideline him for 4-6 weeks, but he’s remained on injured reserve for the last 11 weeks.
It’s a similar situation for Troy Reeder, who was placed on IR with a hamstring injury in Week 8 and has been out ever since.
Both players have missed much more time than originally anticipated, but it’s not because their recoveries are taking longer than expected. It’s strictly a personnel decision that’s forced the Rams to take their time with both players.
Teams can only designate eight players to return from injured reserve and the Rams have already used seven of those spots, so they have just one left. Sean McVay explained on Monday that they’re waiting to use their final activation in case an injury occurs at either safety or tight end in the final five weeks, despite both players being ready to return.
“It’s interesting because we have that one spot left and what’s unique in terms of being able to utilize that for the return off of IR with the amount of slots that you do have,” McVay said. “Both of those guys could be physically ready and both of those guys would represent our team getting better. The unique thing that Les (Snead) and I and some of the defensive coaches were talking about earlier is if you were to have an injury at one of those positions, it maybe makes it a little bit easier or gives you some clarity in terms of, OK, if we had something at safety, let’s bring JJ back. If we had something at inside linebacker, let’s get Troy back. Those are ongoing conversations but as of right now, we’re still working through that. We would love to have the availability to bring them both back. It’s a tough situation. Nobody to blame but us for that. We’ll handle it accordingly, but I don’t have a clear-cut answer on that for you. They both could be available, but we only have one of those guys that we could actually bring back.”
Johnson is widely viewed as the better player, but the Rams have also found a safety rotation that’s worked in recent weeks. They’re lacking depth at inside linebacker behind Christian Rozeboom and Omar Speights, but Reeder likely wouldn’t unseat either player in the starting lineup if activated.
The only way they can bring back both players is if they make the playoffs. Teams are given an extra two return spots in the postseason, which would allow the Rams to activate one player now and two more in the playoffs.