Following his first season with the Los Angeles Rams that ended in a Super Bowl championship, Matthew Stafford has struggled to stay healthy.
Following the title run, Stafford came into the 2022 campaign dealing with an elbow injury that limited him early on in the year. The quarterback later suffered a spinal contusion midway through the regular season that landed him on IR and forced him to miss the rest of the year.
After spending the offseason rehabbing, Stafford came into training camp healthy and looked like his normal self for the first few games of the 2023 season. However, in their Week 8 blowout loss to the Dallas Cowboys Stafford suffered a UCL sprain in his right thumb and was listed as day-to-day.
After missing practice throughout the week, Stafford was declared inactive for their Week 9 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN:
Brett Rypien will start at quarterback for the Rams against the Packers. Matthew Stafford will be inactive.
— Sarah Barshop (@sarahbarshop) November 5, 2023
This seemed like the most likely outcome given that Stafford is dealing with an injury to his throwing hand coupled with the fact that the Rams have their bye week next week. Giving him as much time to heal and rest should do wonders for the home stretch of the season.
Without Stafford, Brett Rypien will step in as the starter and could have some success against a struggling Packers defense. Rypien may not be the same level of passer that Stafford is, but he’s at least shown flashes of command of the offense.
Ernest Jones ruled out against Packers with knee injury
The offense isn’t the only side dealing with injuries, as the defense will be without Ernest Jones, who is dealing with a knee injury. Jones has been managing the knee ailment the past couple of weeks, so the team is playing it safe and holding him out until after the bye.
