Matthew Stafford doesn’t participate at Rams practice despite expected return

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Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford was expected to make his return to the practice field on Monday. Instead, the 37-year-old, who is dealing with an aggravated disk that caused back soreness for the last several weeks, remained a spectator.

“Ultimately, what ended up happening, had a great workout, felt good, but then came in today, it doesn’t feel great,” Rams coach Sean McVay said. “(I) didn’t think that was the right decision to be able to push him. We’ve always talked about flexibility, being fluid with some of the plans. And I think more than anything, I feel for a guy that I really care about that wants to be out there more than anything else.

“We’re going to be smart, but he didn’t feel good enough, and we didn’t think it was the right thing to do based on how he woke up feeling today.”

McVay told reporters Saturday night after the team’s preseason win over the Dallas Cowboys that Stafford would return to practice on Monday. His ramp-up period was expected to start with individual (throw-and-catch) drills with receivers.

Stafford had a workout at the team’s practice facility in Woodland Hills, Calif., before the preseason game at SoFi Stadium, in which McVay said that Stafford threw the ball “60-plus times.”

“He looked good, he threw the ball really well,” McVay said of Stafford’s workout. “There were no limitations in terms of the type of throws. Deep, intermediate, short, we were moving the launch point. He felt really good.”

The Rams have downplayed the concern regarding Stafford’s injury, with McVay saying last week that if this were in-season instead of training camp, Stafford would be playing.

“We have taken a very cautious approach,” McVay said on Thursday. “But if we were playing a game this week, he would be playing in the game.”

Stafford, entering his 17th NFL season, has not been able to throw to teammates since the spring. He’s dealt with back issues at various points throughout his career, including a spinal cord contusion in Week 11 of 2022.

McVay has mentioned before that Stafford’s current back ailment is unrelated to the one from three seasons ago. On Monday, when asked if back surgery is in consideration for Stafford at this point, McVay said that’s not a conversation the team has broached.

“I haven’t gone down that road yet in terms of those types of conversations,” McVay said. “There have been a lot of conversations about what’s the best method of how we want to approach it, and that hasn’t been something that comes up yet.”

McVay didn’t offer a new hard timeline for his quarterback’s return, but he did say that Stafford, who had previously been dubbed as “week to week” earlier in training camp, will be evaluated on a day-to-day basis.

“What we want to be able to do is take it a day at a time,” McVay said. “I think that’s healthy for everybody. Sometimes when you set expectations, they’re not met, what’s the first response? There’s frustration, and that’s OK to feel that way, but how can we move forward accordingly and most importantly, support a guy that when he gets out here, we are going to be really excited about?

“Like I’ve told you guys from day one, I’ll defer to the experts. I’ll defer to Matthew. Nobody’s tougher than this guy.”

When asked if Stafford would be on the field when the Rams open their season against the Houston Texans on Sept. 7, McVay was optimistic, but not definitive.

“I don’t know that,” McVay said. “I think he still probably would be able to play, it’s just based on how he feels. But because of how he felt overall, it’s like what’s the risk-reward with us being 27 days out?

“Now, I’m not minimizing how important every single day is. I don’t want that to get mixed up. When you are making decisions, you have to say, ‘No. 1, what’s best for the player?’ And then, ‘What is best for our football team?’ In this instance, the approach, knowing that he was going to do some individual (work) and how he felt, just didn’t think that was worth it for us.”

(Photo: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

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