LOS ANGELES — Rams defensive end Myles Garrett is eligible to return from injured reserve next week, but head coach Sean McVay said that he does not expect the two-time Defensive Player of the Year to return to practice quite yet.
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Garrett had arthroscopic surgery on his knee following Week 1. It was an injury he had dealt with throughout training camp but tried to play in the season opener, only to realize how much it was hampering his play.
Following the surgery, Garrett was placed on injured reserve, ensuring he missed at least four games. But while McVay says the defensive end is still recovering on schedule, it does not look like Garrett will be ready to face the Arizona Cardinals in Week 6.
“It’s kind of week to week in terms of how he feels,” McVay said. “There’s a difference between return to play and return to performance. And when you do something like this, let’s put him in a good position to return to performance.”
Once Garrett hits the recovery benchmarks he needs to, the Rams will begin ramping him up at practice. But the fact that Garrett missed so much of training camp after his offseason trade to the Rams won’t delay his eventual return to game action this fall.
“A lot of that really stemmed from the irritation in the knee so hopefully that’s gone and it’s really just how quickly can the alien get up to speed for us,” McVay said. “But I think because we got that fixed and because he’s feeling so good, I think that’ll be an accelerated process. But him actually doing football-related activities and drills will be very important for us to put him in a position to join the group.”
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The Rams did get some good injury news Saturday, though.
Defensive tackle Aaron Donald (knee), cornerback Jaylen Watson (shoulder) and tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) were all cleared to play against the Buffalo Bills (3-1) on Monday without a game designation. Safety Quentin Lake (hip) returned to practice Saturday and, though listed as questionable, is “trending in the right direction” to play, McVay said.
Kinchens happy to be back
Safety Kamren Kinchens would rather drop back into coverage. Most of the time when a safety blitz call comes in, he lets Kam Curl take the opportunity. He even made an empty offer to Byron Young to take credit for the full sack that the two shared in Sunday’s win over the Eagles.
But on Sunday, the way the Eagles were aligned meant three of the safety blitz calls had to go to Kinchens. And the third-year player made the most of them, with two pressures and a sack.
He had a little more rust to work out in coverage after missing two games with a hamstring injury. He was targeted twice in the game, allowing two receptions for 21 yards. But it felt good to be back on the field.
“A little slow to get started, but after that, I was rolling,” Kinchens said. “Once I got back in that groove and just, you know, just got back to having fun, it was great.”
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