After struggling against the San Francisco 49ers and later admitting that his right knee still wasn’t completely healthy, Myles Garrett is taking action to address the issue.
According to Tom Pelissero of The Ringer, the two-time Defensive Player of the Year is undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery and will be placed on injured reserve by the Los Angeles Rams:
Rams star Myles Garrett will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his ailing knee and is headed to injured reserve, sources tell @ringer @netflixsports.
Garrett has been dealing with lower-leg pain and wasn’t himself in Thursday’s opener. The hope is he’s back in four weeks. pic.twitter.com/naTKJDV06R
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 13, 2026
With the move, Garrett will miss at least the next four weeks. That means he won’t play against the New York Giants, Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills.
The earliest that Garrett could return is Week 6, when the Rams host the Arizona Cardinals at SoFi Stadium.
This is a disappointing development for Garrett and the Rams, but the decision to undergo surgery now is the right call to ensure the seven-time Pro Bowler is at his best later in the season.
The Rams gave up a massive haul to acquire Garrett during the offseason, so it makes sense that they want to get ahead of the problem now rather than let him play hurt and risk making the injury worse.
Garrett was limited throughout training camp with lower-body soreness and the knee injury, so it has been a while since he has been fully healthy.
With Garrett sidelined, the Rams will rely on their depth to help replace his production. L.A. still has a stacked defensive line with Kobie Turner, Byron Young, Braden Fisk, Poona Ford and others still capable of making an impact.
Of course, it also helps that future Hall of Famer Aaron Donald came out of retirement to rejoin the Rams and could make his 2026 debut as soon as Week 2 against the Giants.
Sean McVay doesn’t blame travel plans for Rams’ loss to 49ers
Expectations are high for the Rams this season, but they didn’t live up to them in Week 1 as they were thoroughly beaten by the 49ers, 27-7.
A lot of the discussion leading up to the game was about it being in Melbourne, Australia, and the drastically different travel decisions the two teams made. The 49ers arrived a week early and got acclimated to Australia while the Rams flew in the day before and tried to stay on L.A. time.
“I don’t believe that’s why we didn’t play well enough. I really don’t,” McVay said of the Rams’ decision to travel so late to Australia. “That’s something that I’ll always make decisions that I think are best for the football team. It’s easy in hindsight to say it was a miss, but those are responsibilities that I’ll take.”
