Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay announced that quarterback Matthew Stafford entered the NFL’s concussion protocol on Tuesday.
This is the latest blow to a Rams team that has been decimated by injuries all year. As a result, the team currently sits at 3-5 with their playoff hopes hanging on by a thread.
Stafford is as tough as they come and has only missed eight games in his NFL career. The concussion protocol is beyond his control though, so he must complete all of the steps before being able to return to play, which puts his status for this Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals in jeopardy.
Considering Stafford was not removed from this past weekend’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with a concussion, McVay explained when it came to be and why these steps are being taken, via the Rams’ official Twitter account:
“We’ll keep Matthew Stafford out. We’ll put him in the concussion protocol. What ended up happening was Reggie [Scott] and his group doing their kind of clean-up after the game, you ask the questions and you do the right follow-ups and they determined that was the best thing for him and that’s kind of where we’re at with it. It’s more importantly about the person than the player in these types of things as we know. Nobody is more of a competitor wanting to be out there with his teammates than Matthew, but he’s in the protocol. So we’ll take it a day at a time with him and that was what our medical experts determined just based on some of the things that they gathered was the smart and right course of action.”
Ever since Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was allowed to play the following week after suffering a concussion and then went down again, the NFL has adopted stricter rules as far as when players can return.
So unless Stafford can pass all of the tests in a short amount of time, he will likely miss at least one game for the Rams. That means that McVay will have to make the decision to go with John Wolford or Bryce Perkins against Arizona with both having a solid case for why they should start.
Only time will tell if Stafford is able to clear protocols and play, but in the meantime, the Rams have a lot of work to do getting their backups ready for a big division game.
