The Los Angeles Rams got back on track with a dominating win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 13, cruising to a 34-7 victory on the road to move to 7-5.
While there were most positives to take away from the game, the team did lose one player to injury in kick and punt returner JoJo Natson.
Rams head coach Sean McVay provided an update on Natson at practice on Monday, and he is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after suffering a hamstring injury, via Stu Jackson of TheRams.com:
Rams starting PR/KR JoJo Natson suffered a hamstring injury in their win over the Cardinals on Sunday and will miss the next 4-6 weeks, head coach Sean McVay announced Monday.
“We’ll have some further updates on what exactly that means in terms of his status and how we’ll handle that,” McVay said.
Natson has been the Rams’ returnman in 25 games over the last two seasons, averaging 20.9 yards on kick returns and 9.5 yards on punt returns.
Unless Natson is played on injured reserve, which has yet to be determined, his production will have to be replicated from within the organization. McVay expects rookie running back Darrell Henderson Jr. to return kicks and rookie wide receiver Nsimba Webster to handle punts:
McVay said “there’s a good chance” rookie RB Darrell Henderson Jr. will be the next man up on kickoff returns, while rookie WR Nsimba Webster is expected to get a shot at punt returns given his consistency with those duties in the preseason.
Henderson has experience returning kicks in college at Memphis, and he is one of the fastest players on the team so should have no problem handling kick-return duties. Webster returned punts in three preseason games and averaged a team-best 9.6 yards.
The Rams schedule to finish out the season is one of the toughest in the league, and it starts with the Seattle Seahawks coming to town for Sunday Night Football in Week 14.
