While things seem to be trending up for the Los Angeles Rams after their second consecutive victory, there is still plenty of room for improvement.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Rams have yet to hit their stride. Part of the reason for that is they have been missing some key pieces, including wide receiver Van Jefferson.
Jefferson underwent knee surgery at the beginning of training camp and the hope was that he would be ready for the start of the regular season. His rehab has gone slower than expected though as he has yet to make his season debut and was placed on injured reserve before the Week 3 win over the Arizona Cardinals.
That means that Jefferson will be out through at least the Rams’ Week 7 bye, although Sean McVay confirmed he expects the wide out back in Week 8, via Skyler Carlin of USA Today:
“Yeah, it really boiled down to, because we’ve had so many of these injuries, there wasn’t any sort of setback. The goal for us maybe was that it would be in a couple weeks. He had been making really good progress and that’s been in alignment, but there’s a lot of layers to whether we put a guy on IR or not, that’s not exclusive to just that person in particular,” McVay said. “I think when you look at where the bye was going to fall for us, we had to make that decision and designation so that you don’t end up restricting his ability to return after the bye. That really bought him an extra couple weeks. There wasn’t any setbacks, that’s consistent with what I had told you guys. There was a lot of layers to it, but we do expect that to be short term. Originally, we’re thinking kind of Carolina and then I don’t even know who we play when we get back from the bye (San Francisco), but we expect him to be ready to roll when that time comes.”
With Allen Robinson’s Rams career getting off to a slow start, getting Jefferson back will be a welcomed return for the Rams in Week 8.
In Jefferson’s second NFL season in 2021, he pulled in 50 catches for 802 yards and six touchdowns, building a connection with Matthew Stafford as his primary deep threat.
That deep ball option has been sorely lacking in the Rams offense through three weeks, but it will still be a few more before Jefferson is able to return and fill that void.
