Nick Hamilton@NickHamilton213
QB Matthew Stafford & WR Davante Adams spoke w/ me about the challenges of facing the #BigBlue defense

Stafford: “They have a good scheme and those guys attack. When you watch them play, even the first play of the game against the Cowboys, Abdul Carter just blowing up the back sift or whatever that was. You look at those plays and you go, ‘Man, these guys, they play with their hair on fire. They really get after it.’”

Adams: “Sometimes in a situation like what we have, we have a lot of good interior guys and guys up front to where on the back end, those guys may not have to work quite as hard and quite as long. You look at who they have up front and that’s where it starts on every team. They have some guys that can get to the quarterback and put some pressure on you in the run game and all those facets.”

They get to the Rams at about 56.25 in.

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and Jourdan Rodrigue preview EVERY Week 2 NFL game.

00:00 START
01:00 Bengals at Texans
07:50 Vikings at Bears
16:25 Saints at Ravens
23:00 Steelers at Patriots
30:20 Packers at Jets
37:20 Panthers at Falcons
43:50 Browns at Buccaneers
49:20 Eagles at Titans
56:20 Giants at Rams on Monday Night Football
01:04:30 Seahawks at Cardinals
01:10:50 Jaguars at Broncos
01:18:15 Raiders at Chargers
01:26:05 Colts at Chiefs on Monday Night Football
01:32:50 Commanders at Cowboys
01:39:34 Dolphins at 49ers

LAFB Network@LAFBNetwork
Matthew Stafford has struggled against Raheem Morris-led defenses over the last two seasons: 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and 2 losses. Against every other team in that span, Stafford has 44 touchdowns, 5 interceptions and just 4 losses.

Jason La Canfora@JasonLaCanfora
Winning in NFL right now is defined by ability to create 25 yard plays and defend them. That’s what Sean McVay believes. Might be as correlated to winning as turnovers. Teams that went +3 or better in EPD were 6-1 Week 1

wv wrote:

Dolphins might not make the playoffs

Just fwiw, Jarquez Hunter is on their practice squad.

Imagine how Hunter feels. He was traded–for a player the Rams let walk because they did not want to sign that player to an extension–to the worst team in the league.

It’s like you got detained for having expired plates, and then when you pay for registration and finally retrieve your car from the impound, on the way home you get pulled over for speeding

The last time Aaron Donald faced the NY Giants:

– 5 Tackles
– 2 Sacks
– 2 TFL's
– 2 QB Hits https://t.co/ChmpHikkPc pic.twitter.com/IFtOjP724W

— LAFB Network (@LAFBNetwork) September 16, 2026

Rams News BR@RamsNewsBR
According to Ian Rapoport, Aaron Donald is expected to be on the field for the next MNF, against the Giants.

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
One bad game against a coach who famously has our number and defensive coordinator who hung around him for 3+ years. And they’re ready to write off the MVP of the league.

Stafford’s last INT against SF was in 2023 before the Australia game.

Why surgery became Rams’ best option for star pass rusher Myles Garrett

Nate Atkins

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7594462/2026/09/14/myles-garrett-injury-rams-sean-mcvay/?source=emp_shared_article&smid=ta-ios-share

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Rams will be without their best defensive player for the next month, and possibly longer.

Reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett is undergoing surgery Monday on the knee he injured early in training camp and is headed to injured reserve. That will keep him out for at least the next four games, and coach Sean McVay isn’t willing to put a timetable on when his star edge rusher will return.

“I think it’s all contingent upon how did things go today,” McVay said. “You feel good about it, but I think it’d be unfair to him without having the totality of all the information to put any sort of timeline on it. We know that he’ll be available in four weeks potentially, and we’ll take that a day at a time.”

Garrett first started experiencing knee soreness on July 29, which led to a trip to the trainer’s room at Loyola Marymount University and delayed his first training camp news conference by more than an hour. He took two practices off before returning on a maintenance schedule that carried over until shortly after the team returned to its facility in Woodland Hills on Aug. 8.

“I’m allowed to get sore,” Garrett, 30, said at the time. “I’m a little old.”

Then, suddenly, he was barely practicing as joint sessions with the Dallas Cowboys and the New Orleans Saints began. McVay said after the Cowboys joint practice that Garrett estimated that he was at around 85 percent of his normal abilities at the time.

Garrett finally returned to practice Sept. 6 as the Rams transitioned into regular-season mode with a game on tap against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia. He practiced four out of five days that week, with full sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, and McVay described Garrett’s status as full-go.

But then the game arrived, and Garrett played 40 of the team’s 65 defensive snaps in addition to six plays between the punt and field goal block teams. Against the 49ers, Garrett rotated in and out at different times and couldn’t find any rhythm. He finished with zero sacks, zero tackles and zero quarterback hits.

The Rams blitzed on just 11.1 percent of plays, per TruMedia. They banked on Garrett and three rushers to get home, but they logged just two quarterback hits and zero sacks on 39 dropbacks from Brock Purdy in the 27-7 loss.

“This was the worst version of myself that I’ve put out there,” Garrett said after the game. “I’ve got to be better. I’ve got to find a way to recover and get back to the player I know that I can be and that I’ve shown I’ve been before. … When I was out there, I was a little bit more focused on myself and trying to stay healthy than what they were doing, and it showed. I wasn’t where I needed to be for my team.”

Asked about his goals for Week 2 against the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football,” Garrett could only talk about the knee.

“Getting healthy,” Garrett said. “That’s the main thing.”

That night, McVay and Garrett discussed his knee and decided they needed to explore another avenue. The time off in training camp didn’t give him the freshness they wanted, and the version he showed was a long way from the one who set the NFL’s all-time single-season sacks record with 23 last season for the Cleveland Browns.

“I thought we would take an approach where he’d be feeling good enough to go, contribute positive change and be the player that he’s capable of,” McVay said. “That wasn’t the case, and so the next right thing for us is to be able to get this thing fixed.”

The Rams opted against having Garrett undergo surgery after the initial injury scare, hoping a maintenance plan could get him to the regular season. If they had done so in early August, Garrett could be more than a month into recovery. That’s the amount of time he must now miss on IR that will keep him out of games against the Giants, Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills in arguably the toughest stretch of the Rams’ schedule. It will be the longest stretch of missed games in his career, as he had only missed five total in the previous nine seasons.

The Rams also opted not to have Garrett stay home for the trip to Australia, a decision they did make for Aaron Donald, who is healthy but ramping back into football shape after two years of retirement.

“The direction that we went with Myles and the direction we went with Aaron are totally separate situations and circumstances,” McVay said. “With Myles, it was more along the lines of we had been aware of this, thought it was something that he would be able to work through. Obviously being out there and playing in a real game, you learn, hey, maybe that’s not the case, so let’s change course with that, and then Aaron is more just getting him up to speed.”

Ultimately, the Rams did not see one week off as making the difference for Garrett’s knee, given that he’s had plenty of time off over the past month. Garrett did spend around 32 hours on the flight, though the team plane featured laydown beds for each player.

It creates an unfortunate blow to a defense that needs to rebound from a disappointing performance against the 49ers and a team that needs to dig out of a 0-1 hole. After all, the Rams traded Pro Bowl edge rusher Jared Verse to the Browns in order to acquire Garrett as an upgrade.

The Rams could receive a major reinforcement this week if Donald is ready to make his debut for the home opener at SoFi Stadium. McVay wasn’t ready to commit to a timeline for Donald.

“He’s going to continue to work his process, and we’ll see what that looks like,” McVay said.

Donald decided to return to the Rams, in part, because of Garrett. The blockbuster trade for Garrett came right before Donald embarked on what he called a 14-week journey to train and think like an NFL player again.

The potential was alluring, as Garrett and Donald combine for five Defensive Player of the Year awards and can create the first pass rusher tandem in NFL history with 100 career sacks and a 20-sack season for each.

The Rams hope that day can come in Week 6 against the Arizona Cardinals, if Garrett can recover from surgery by then.

In the meantime, they’ll hope Donald can provide some of the impact and attention Garrett demands from opposing offensive lines, and they’ll look to Pro Bowl edge rusher Byron Young as well as second-year outside linebacker Josaiah Stewart to provide their edge presence. Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske are also options to play the edge on run downs.

Nate Atkins@NateAtkins_
Myles Garrett’s knee was a situation they’ve managed for weeks since the initial injury. Sean McVay said they hoped he could play through it and learned in the game that he wasn’t nearly himself.

They did not consider leaving him in L.A. like they did with Aaron Donald.

Stu Jackson@StuJRams
Other injury updates from Sean McVay:

S Kam Curl (ankle) “is good,” just had some ankle soreness

ILB Nate Landman “got his shoulder and his thumb.” Team will be smart with him this week, but expects him to be ready to go for MNF vs. Giants

TE Davis Allen returned to game

Ryan Paganetti@RyanPaganetti
#IDontWantToOverreactBUT the return of the fullback, huge jump in 13 personnel, highest under center usage since 2012 are all bringing football back to the glory days. Run. The. Damn. Ball.

Rams Bros.@RamsBrothers
Minus the fullback usage (which has showed up from time to time in the McVay era), Rams were ahead of all these trends.

Now it’s time for the to STAY ahead of them, master it all and continue to mix in what has made the Rams great from 2021-today.

from https://www.turfshowtimes.com/los-angeles-rams-depth-chart/148710/myles-garrett-injury-josaiah-stewart-backup?utm_campaign=dhtwitter&utm_content=%3Cmedia_url%3E&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

…if we apply the “never waste a good crisis” logic we can find some silver linings. One of the developments to monitor will be how second-year EDGE rusher Josaiah Stewart fares in a larger role.

…

I wrote the following about the 2025 third-round pick back in June:

What if I told you Stewart was as effective as a pass rusher as last year’s third overall selection in Abdul Carter? They both led all rookie EDGE rushers in pass rush win rate, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF), at 14.7%. This would rank around 22nd among all players at the same position with at least 318 pass rushing snaps.

It makes sense that Stewart’s role would increase in 2026 despite Myles Garrett joining the team. You can never have too many quality EDGE rushers, and Stewart does bring a physical presence whereas Byron Young is a straight speedster. The Rams did not shy away from using Stewart in all facets a year ago: his run versus pass rushing snaps were evenly divided and he also dropped into coverage nearly a quarter of the time. There is no stronger endorsement of a rookie than asking him to do it all.

In Week 1 against the San Francisco 49ers, Stewart played 28 of 64 total defensive snaps. Garrett and Young were on the field for 40 and 47, respectively… In a small sample size, Stewart finished with the third-highest Pro Football Focus (PFF) grade on defense at 75.9.

Sosa Kremenjas@QBsMVP
Pressure rate, per @SumerSports:
Myles Garrett with 1 leg – 11.1%
Jared Verse – 6.7%

@speed_kills@speedk1lls
Ominous? Other teams lose star players and they continue to win. You people keep telling us Sean McVay is the best coach in football. Well now he’s gonna have to prove it. Josiah Stewart is up.