With Week 9 officially in the books, the Los Angeles Rams will finally get back into the swing of things and kickoff the second half of their schedule.
Even at 5-3, the Rams have a lot of work to do to get back in the NFC West race as the San Francisco 49ers remain the lone undefeated team in the NFL while Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks continue to pull out tightly contested victories. Los Angeles managed to stack a couple of nice wins against struggling squads, but the rest of their games for the 2019 NFL season will prove to be much more difficult challenges.
The injury bug has hit the team much harder than it has in the past couple of seasons as key players like Clay Matthews and Bryce Hager remain on the shelf while John Johnson III was put on injured reserve.
The offense is also missing one of its main components as Brandin Cooks suffered a concussion in the team’s last game against the Cincinnati Bengals and was ruled out immediately. After a positive visit with concussion specialists, Rams head coach Sean McVay provided an update regarding the receiver and his health status, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
“It was good,” McVay said of the visit. “More than anything, just getting some clarity on what’s been the reason that maybe these things have occurred, how is he feeling. Anytime you can just get some more information with something like this, it’s very helpful. He’s still day-to-day. He was asymptomatic right after, which is always a positive thing.”
Cooks was expected to miss extended time given this is the fourth concussion he has suffered in three years, but a day-to-day designation is obviously good news. Still, the Rams would be smart to bring him along slowly as another concussion would put his season in danger, as well as his long-term well-being.
With Cooks’ long-term health in mind, McVay said that he will see another specialist in Pittsburgh just to monitor his symptoms and make sure he is good:
“Usually, what I think they have is a trust that our interest is in their best interest,” McVay said. “Using the experts to be able to give their opinion and then you make decisions accordingly as you move forward. You can’t be safe enough with some of these health things. That’s something that we don’t take lightly at all.”
In Cooks’ absence, Josh Reynolds should step in and he seems poised to continue his impressive play. Reynolds, who scored a touchdown in the game against Cincinnati, is a talented receiver who provides Jared Goff with another end zone weapon and the offense should still be able to continue its impressive play as of late.
