We’re already almost halfway through the 2020 season, despite it feeling like the year just began. And with the season progressing so quickly, injuries start to pile up. The Rams have been fairly fortunate on that front, but little nicks and bruises have an impact.
The Rams felt that this week with Tyler Higbee, Robert Woods and Darrell Henderson missing practice time due to injuries that popped up mid-week. Woods and Henderson will play on Monday night, but Higbee is listed as questionable.
With the Rams playing their seventh straight game without a bye or even short week from a Thursday night game, Sean McVay is switching up the practice approach to be more guarded and cautious.
“Here’s what I would say with the guys that have played a good amount of football – with Tyler and Robert especially, you don’t worry about it as much. You don’t minimize the importance of practice because it is very important, but as you start to accumulate all those games throughout the course of a season, there’s a natural wear and tear that takes part on these guys’ bodies,” McVay said last week. “Especially, because usually, each of the last few years we had the mini-bye with our Thursday game earlier. So, now representing our seventh game in a row, we’ve had a lot of travel. I’m never going to make excuses, but start to transition to a little bit more of an above-the-neck emphasis. It would be good to have those guys out there, but it still doesn’t take away from the amount of things you can accomplish throughout the course of the week. Like to be able to have Darrell to be out there because I think he’s still in that mode of the accumulation of reps is important for him. But, doesn’t change that we have high expectations for what all those guys can accomplish on Monday night.”
That approach could be seen this week in practice. Aaron Donald and Andrew Whitworth got their usual days off on Thursday, but Troy Hill and Michael Brockers also got veterans days off on Saturday.
McVay isn’t minimizing the importance of practice, but it is smart to keep the wear and tear down where possible for veterans who have played a lot of football this season, missing very few snaps during the year.