The Los Angeles Rams announced that second-year linebacker Micah Kiser is out indefinitely after sustaining a left pectoral injury in Saturday night’s preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys at Aloha Stadium in Hawaii. The injury will require surgery, which is scheduled to take place Tuesday.
Ever since he took over as head coach of the Rams, Sean McVay has made it clear that he is not going to play his starters in the preseason so they can head into Week 1 at full health. On Saturday night, his stance on that was validated when Kiser left the game with an injury.
Kiser was expected to start at linebacker for the Rams, but that was not set in stone as some other players have also been competing for that spot, which is why Kiser was seeing some game action.
After the game, McVay expressed his remorse for playing Kiser in the first place, via Gary Klein of the L.A. Times:
McVay on Kiser: "We’re hopeful that we’ll get some good information back on Micah, but when you look at one of the guys that’s projected as a starter, that’s actually participated, if you end up losing him certainly I think you’d say, ‘Man, I wish I had handled that differently.”
— Gary Klein (@LATimesklein) August 18, 2019
Linebacker is perhaps the position that the Rams have the least amount of depth, so losing Kiser is obviously unfortunate. Bryce Hager and rookie Dakota Allen will likely see extended playing time at the position while he is out, and undrafted rookie Natrez Patrick may now have a pathway for a spot on the 53-man roster.
Considering he is forced to undergo surgery, it is safe to say that Kiser will be out for an extended period of time, which is a tough break for the Rams. With two preseason games remaining, all of the starters will continue to sit out so another situation like this one can be avoided.
