The Los Angeles Rams seem to have everything they need to finish first in the NFC West again and perhaps even be a dark-horse contender for this season's Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Pro Bowl-level wide receivers (Davante Adams and Puka Nacua)? Check. A Pro Bowl-level running back (Kyren Williams)? Check. Multiple young studs on defense? Check. A Pro Bowl-level quarterback (Matthew Stafford)? Check.
However, Stafford is banged up right now. He's been dealing with a painful back ailment, and he missed a good chunk of training camp before finally returning to practice this week.
His status for the Rams' Week 1 game versus the Houston Texans is unknown, and he will not play in their final preseason game on Saturday against the Cleveland Browns. He addressed the media for the first time about his injury and talked about how he's feeling and how hard he's been working to get his body right.
"I'm not going to talk too much in specifics or anything like that, but as far as what I've done, everything under the sun," stated Stafford. "I feel like obviously our guys here have a great program, doing everything we can to try and get to feeling as good as I can. I've done everything I can possibly do. I've done a ton of research just trying to help myself out. The good thing is, I've felt pretty good the last couple days out there practicing. I was able to do even a little bit more than I thought I was going to be able to do the first day and then I've just been trying to stack days. Backs are sometimes interesting things. It's not cut and dry with what's what and how you're going to feel. I really appreciate our team, our head coach and everybody taking a day-to-day approach with me doing everything they can to try and help me out. I have a huge feeling of responsibility to our team to do what's right by them and I'm trying to do that to the best I can day in to day out."
Back injuries can be particularly problematic, especially for a pro athlete who has 16 seasons of wear and tear on his body, as Stafford does. They can linger and worsen over time, and they can get to the point where surgery is necessary.
Ever since he led the Rams to the Super Bowl championship during the 2021 season, Stafford has dealt with a number of injuries, although he has appeared in 31 of a possible 34 games over the last two seasons. At age 37, he could be a bit of a ticking time bomb, given all the mileage he has accumulated.
Los Angeles could have a decent insurance policy under center in the form of veteran Jimmy Garoppolo. While he hasn't played yet during the exhibition season, he has plenty of experience under his belt, which includes being the starter on a San Francisco 49ers team that got to the Super Bowl during the 2019 season and reached the NFC Championship Game two years later.
However, plenty doubt that he can be satisfactory outside of 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan's offense, which seems to be that proverbial rising tide that lifts the stats of all quarterbacks.
The Rams' schedule this season won't be easy -- according to Sharp Football Analysis, they're 20th in strength of schedule, which means only 12 NFL teams have a tougher schedule than them. If Stafford cannot get healthy enough to play soon, they could stumble out of the gate and lose the opportunity to do something special this winter.
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