The Los Angeles Rams traveled to Phoenix on Saturday ahead of their Week 14 matchup against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
It’s an important divisional game for the Rams, who are looking to bounce back from a surprising loss to the Carolina Panthers that dropped them to 9-3.
L.A. should have a relatively healthy group when they take the field against the Cardinals, but the same cannot be said for head coach Sean McVay, who is battling the flu.
According to ESPN’s Sarah Barshop, McVay traveled to Arizona separately from the Rams because of the illness:
Sean McVay will fly to Phoenix separately from the team after coming down with an illness.
— Sarah Barshop (@sarahbarshop) December 6, 2025
McVay is sick enough that he had to travel alone to Arizona, but the expectation remains that he will be able to coach the Rams on Sunday.
If things change and McVay is unable to be on the sidelines, Rams assistant Aubrey Pleasant would likely step in as the acting head coach.
Pleasant is the team’s assistant head coach and passing-game coordinator, and previously served as Rams head coach for one game in each of the last two preseasons.
McVay has praised Pleasant on numerous occasions and believes he can be an NFL head coach someday.
Sean McVay not concerned about Rams getting No. 1 seed
The Rams need to rack up as many wins as possible this month if they want to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. They entered Sunday tied with the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks for the best record in the NFC.
Only the No. 1 seed gets a bye so that should be the goal, although Rams head coach Sean McVay explained why he’s not concerned about it.
“I don’t track it in the least bit. It’s not important to me at all,” McVay said. “What’s important to me is us being totally and completely present today. We have no guarantee to play past 17 games. The only thing that I know and that I fully believe is that our ability to be totally and completely present have a great Wednesday and put ourselves in a position to earn the right to feel confident to be able to go forward against the Cardinals. There were a lot of good things that we can learn from that game, whether we win or lose. When you come up short, I think it’s a great opportunity for us to be what we want to be about and that is the furthest thing… Our goal is to try to prepare to get the result we want week in and week out. Those other things take care of themselves. That is not in the least bit of my concern. I want us to get back to playing the better quality football that we’ve been accustomed to seeing that we didn’t do the other day.”
