Rams Matthew Stafford Dealing With Back Soreness

"The other thing that you guys will notice, Matthew’s feeling good," stated McVay. "He had a little bit of soreness in his back that kind of crept up when he was… He’s been throwing, feeling good. It’s not anything that’s necessarily new, something that he’s dealt with before. Going into year 17, we were going to take a modified approach with him, kind of similar to what we did in the offseason program. And so, we’ll allow him to just work kind of off to the side on his own, get himself feeling as good as possible, and then he’ll be ready for block two, which will really represent once we finish the five-day acclimation period. He feels good about that."

"I feel good about that. And ultimately, it’s about having him feel as good as possible mentally, physically, [and] emotionally going into year 17. And then, that’s where you do feel fortunate that you got a guy like [QB] Jimmy [Garoppolo] that will step in and do a great job for the first few practices and then Matthew will be ready to roll.”

The Rams have a plan for Stafford to return after they complete their initial acclimation period.

“Just that first block is what we anticipate. So really, the five- day acclimation period starts today, represents day one. And then we’ll have two days of practice, we’ll have a job through, then a practice. Then kind of a de-loaded day, and then a practice on what will represent the fifth day. And then after that, projection wise, feeling good about him returning.”

McVay went into detail about the Rams' plan for Stafford.

“That would probably represent something along the lines of, if you look at our four-day blocks, one of those four days, he would be off. And we’ll do that with a couple other veteran players as you look at the totality of the amount of work that we’ll get in. And really when you are saying, ‘Hey, it’s as important as anything to get as healthy and ready to go for week one as we possibly can.’ Some of those guys that have a lot more experience, that’s where you’re balancing that hey, you got to work. I think growth does demand a discomfort in terms of setting those right calluses, but not unnecessarily pushing the envelope from a sports performance perspective where guys feel worn down before you’ve even played one of these 17 that you’re guaranteed. But one of the four days to answer your question. Sorry for all the unnecessary ‘BS’ there.”

McVay went on to state that he's not concerned with the time Stafford will miss due to his 17 years of experience, and for the Rams, it's about maintaining his health at this point in Stafford's career.

At OTAs, Stafford was on the field, active with the team, but Garoppolo threw a lot more than Stafford in every drill. However, when Stafford was in, he looked great and he's used to this.

Stafford has been playing at a high level for over 25 years. He's taken a lot of hits over that time. He played Texas High School ball, College Football in the SEC and was on the Lions for a long time.

Considering the plan the Rams have in place, there's no reason to worry. We'll update if something changes.