Matthew Stafford’s elbow became a major storyline of training camp, even though the Rams never planned for that to be the case. He felt some pain in his right arm after throwing in practice one day, so the team lightened his workload by giving him some days off from team drills.
Stafford and Sean McVay have maintained that it’s nothing to worry about long-term, and that they’re just trying to make sure he’s as healthy as possible for the upcoming season. But those on the outside looking in are a bit more worried about Stafford’s elbow.
Former Rams offensive coordinator Mike Martz shared his thoughts on the injury in a video for 33rd Team, and he would be concerned if he were the head coach or coordinator.
“If I’m the head coach here, if I’m the coordinator and he’s still not feeling right with that arm, I’m nervous about it because we’ve had a long time here to get that arm right,” Martz said.
Martz said when he was with the Rams, their quarterbacks experienced some fatigue in camp because they threw the ball so often in practice. It even happened to Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, causing the team to lighten his workload.
The Rams also talked to the St. Louis Cardinals’ pitching staff about arm fatigue, Martz said.
“We had a similar situation where we used to throw the ball so much in practice, we’d call it the rag arm. The guys, their arm, they go to throw the ball and it just looks like a duck. I don’t care how strong, they used to throw too much,” he said. “… Every third day, we knocked off the reps for Kurt because he threw the ball so much, and then the other guys picked up their reps. So you’ve got to give them enough rest and yet give them great work and a lot of reps in spurts.”
Martz isn’t inside the building so he doesn’t know the exact status of Stafford’s elbow or how the quarterback is feeling, but based on his experience and his take on the situation, Martz would be concerned.
“I don’t know, but it scares the heck out of me because, they’re talking about it now, and boy, that would scare me,” he said.
