For the second week in a row and for the third time this season, the Los Angeles Rams will be without Matthew Stafford at quarterback. There is some good news, however: Stafford has cleared the concussion protocol.
The reason he’s been ruled out for Week 13 against the Seahawks is he’s still dealing with a neck injury, which is why he didn’t play last week in Kansas City. Stafford was originally placed on the concussion protocol because he felt numbness in his legs during Week 11 against the Saints, which caused him to be taken out of the game.
Sean McVay told reporters that Stafford cleared the concussion protocol on Friday morning, saying “he’s doing good.”
The neck is the issue, though, and the team is still gathering more information on that.
“You’re still gathering information,” he said. “I think when you look at some of the scans, the interesting thing and the challenging thing about the neck is a lot of the things that lead to some of the symptoms that he was feeling where he had some numbness in his legs and things like that against the Saints, you can’t really get in unless you talk to those experts, and a lot of that stuff isn’t brought to life unless you get some of the impact that playing the game of football ends up with some of those things that can occur that you can’t ever really simulate in practice types of settings.”
McVay still wouldn’t rule out shutting down Stafford, but it’s all predicated on how the quarterback is feeling and the risks that might come with putting him on the field again.
