(East Los Angeles, CA) [From The Editor’s Desk]: We now move into the weekly transcripts captured at the team’s Training Facility at Cal Lutheran University. This mid-week “2-in-1” transcript features Head Coach Sean McVay and QB Matthew Stafford who held their own press availabilities for the visiting local, regional, and national media representatives who cover the team during the NFL season. There’s much to read and learn from both of their statements that cover many interesting topics regarding the team, the overall health of its players, the line-up changes due to “key” player injuries, and the importance of starting a good stretch run to the playoffs, just to name a few. Read much, much more in each of their transcripts. 

Los Angeles Rams Transcripts – Head Coach Sean McVay & QB Matthew Stafford – Wed. 11/15/23

[Head Coach Sean McVay]

(Opening remarks)…“Okay from a participation standpoint today, the only guys that’ll be limited will be (OL) Rob Havenstein with his calf. He’s tracking well. (DB) Cobie Durant with his shoulder. (DT) Larrell Murchison with his knee and (WR) Puka Nacua with his knee. Everybody else will be full.”

(On if he expects Havenstein to play this Sunday)…“We do, yes.”

(On if limiting Nacua is preventative)…“It is, yeah. He’s just banged up. You could see he was a little bit limited in terms of just some of his overall movement against Green Bay and just the style at which he plays. I’ll be interested to see if he’s ever truly back full speed, not full speed, but feeling like you don’t have to be cognizant of taking care of him to get him to game day feeling as good as possible. So that’s kind of the thought process there.”

(On if QB Matthew Stafford is throwing today)…“He is, yes.”

(On how the rain will affect Stafford’s ability in practice today)…“I mean everything there was really good. There’s always some definite limitations regardless of your overall health, but don’t expect it to limit our ability to operate the way that we were planning on anyways.”

(On if he expects Stafford’s injury to limit him with game planning)…“No, it’s one of those deals that taking a snap doesn’t affect that specific injury. There are certain things with your hands that’s limited guys in previous experiences that I’ve seen from quarterbacks. That won’t be the case with him.”

(On what has surprised him the most about Seattle since playing them in Week 1)…“Not a lot because I have so much respect for (Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll) Coach Carroll’s leadership knowing that you’re very familiar with how good they are with their personnel and their players. What a good job they do of just consistently getting better. I think one of the things I always respect is they consistently take steps. There’s always an identity that they play with and even though they might be doing a couple things here and there schematically a little bit different defensively, offensively, and on special teams, there’s a way and a style of play that comes to life on the tape and it really starts to illustrate itself as you get throughout the year. They seem like they always get better. If there’s issues that come up, they always continue to solve them. They’ve got really good leadership from their players and so there’s a reason why they’re 6-3 and have done an excellent job. We know it’s a great challenge. We’re looking forward to it.”

(On Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon and how he’s progressed throughout the season) …“Yeah, I was glad he didn’t play against us in the opener. He is a baller. He’s really impressive. He’s got great position versatility. You can see he’s got a great concept trigger, plays with toughness. You see why he was picked where he was. Then just the competitiveness, the nature at which he plays the game. I’ve been really impressed with him and I’ve been really impressed with them as a whole. You just see they’ve gotten better and I think that’s the sign of a really good team. He’s a guy that’s gotten better as he’s accumulated experience. He can play outside and he certainly has made a big presence at the nickel spot.”

(On his first impressions of QB Carson Wentz in practice so far)…“Yeah, really it was just when I kind of spoke to you guys the other day, so that was the extent of what we’ve seen from him but just his demeanor, how quickly he’s picked things up. I always think it’s really important to watch the interaction and feel the rapport that exists between your guys in the quarterback room and Matthew does such a great job of leading that way. Carson’s got a lot of experience and you could see. It’s been smooth so far. In terms of actual football stuff, practice the other day was the only thing that we’ve been exposed to on the field. Then we’ll get a chance to see how today’s practice goes.”

(On whether or not it feels like it’s a new season coming out of a bye at the halfway mark) …“I think it’s a great opportunity to know that you got half the season ahead of you and I think there’s a lot of things when you look at it that you want to be able to look at, alright, there was a lot of things that we can take and continue to be able to build on and a lot of things that if you’re not careful you can say, ‘Well let’s not get too far out of ourselves because we’re closer and we can do some things that are in alignment with getting right back to where we want to be if we just stay right in that moment.’ I would say this, kind of like I had mentioned to you guys, I think being refreshed, recharged, rejuvenated, being able to kind of just take a step back but get a little bit clearer picture of hey, how do we want to move forward? How can we continue to positively push each other, handle each day the right way? And that’s the approach that these guys have taken. I’ve really enjoyed working with this group and looking forward to attacking this week with them.”

(On if he feels he has a good plan in place to get WR Cooper Kupp back on track) …“I do. I think when you look at it, you mentioned it, he had great production those first two games. Some of the things too that end up taking place where you say, okay, if there is going to be this amount of attention paid to a certain player, well that’s why you play with 11 guys and you got to make the other four eligibles come to life. There are certainly some opportunities, some different things that we can do, and I think that’s what we all wanted to be able to look at. All right, what are the things that we can do to help really put not only Cooper, but all of our guys in favorable situations while continuing to see them be able to progress. I think that’s a case by case. I think you got to be able to really look at it and in some of those situations, if there is that extra amount of attention, well then that opens up opportunities. It’s kind of similar to the conversations you talk about in terms of (DT) Aaron’s (Donald) attention that he gets defensively with the protections and how you try to figure out, all right, well let’s make sure we get him involved and then where are those opportunities that other guys have to understand? You got to take advantage of that and so it’s kind of similar in that regard, even though different players, different sides of the ball.”

(On if he expects DB Cobie Durant to be okay) …“I’m hoping so. I think we’re going to take it a day at a time. He had that little stinger and ended up playing about 22, 23 snaps against Green Bay. On the far sideline kind of that toss crack play, he kind of just felt it a little bit. If we feel like he gets back to a position where, all right, you’re not going to be susceptible to an injury, you’ll be in good shape. But it’s kind of one of those deals, similar to a soft tissue, let’s take it a day at a time. I’m optimistic but I’m not a hundred percent sure.”

(On if he anticipates him taking over the outside spot if he’s able to play) …“I think it’s predicated on how the week goes. I think we’re continuing to work through those things. I think it’s important for those young guys to be able to get opportunities to practice and you want to make sure you’re putting them in spots to be able to be successful. But hopefully he’ll be able to practice tomorrow and then we’ll have a little bit more clarity. He’ll still be able to do some stuff today. It just won’t be the amount of reps that we’re accustomed to.”

[Quarterback Matthew Stafford]

(On how he’s feeling)…“Little cold from today (laughter). No, I feel pretty good.”

(On if he was able to get a full workload in today) …“Yeah, I practiced fully so that was good. It’s good to be out there. I haven’t been out there obviously in a couple weeks, so it was kind of nice to just get back out there and get my feet wet again, literally and figuratively. It was good to be back out there.”

(On if the wrap around his thumb is precautionary or preventative) …“I don’t know the right ‘p’ word, but probably preventative. Yeah, just something to help me in there just in case I hit it again, I guess.”

(On the thumb injury and his thought process when it occurred) …“Yeah, I thought it was worse. Hit it three different times. Once on a ball to (WR) Puka (Nacua) in the back of the end zone, it was just out of bounds on. Then obviously the first two-point play and hit it on the helmet. Checked it at halftime, I was like, okay, I’m good. I smashed it but done that a bunch of times and then caught the two-point conversion from (WR) Tutu (Atwell), dove in, my thumb kind of just got caught on the ball as everything went forward and it pulled it in a not fun direction. Then just on the sideline, I didn’t really think anything at the moment and then it was kind of hurting me so I was like, let me hold a ball for the rest of the game. That was kind of what I was thinking. Let me just go get a ball to hold for the rest of the game just to kind of keep my thumb in a good place, keep it moving so it didn’t get too stiff or whatever. I tried to grab it and it didn’t have any strength and was pretty worried about it. Then went back in and did some tests and I thought it was going to be quite a bit worse than it was. So just happy that it’s not as bad as I thought.”

(On when he was first able to grip a ball the way he wants to)…“Still working on it (laughter). No, I feel pretty confident in my ability to go out there and play at a pretty high level.”

(On how the thumb injury compared to when he hurt his middle finger)…“Different injury. That was a mallet finger situation, popped the tendon in the back of my finger so it was kind of down. I don’t know. All of them that touch the ball are important, thumb maybe the most, so it’s definitely a challenge. Obviously, played the whole 2020 season with something similar, or not the whole, the second half of 2020 something similar. So (I’ve) done it before, can do it again.”

(On his history with scar tissue injuries)…“Yeah, I obviously had it repaired in 2021 or 2020 whenever that was, beginning of 2021. Yeah, I mean, there was just some… it was not feeling too good and didn’t feel too good on some of the tests so just happy that it turned out the way it did and hopefully it’ll be better for it.”

(On how he knows whether he can execute a deep ball with his thumb) …“Go out there and practice today. I went out there and practiced today and was able to throw it around. It’s a fine balance of rest and rehab as much as I possibly can to try to let you know everything in there kind of settle down but at the same time, understanding that at some point you got to go out there and see what you got and was able to do that a little bit on Monday and then full practice today just doing everything we wanted to do. So feel pretty good about it.”

(On if he expects to practice fully tomorrow),,,“Yeah, and Friday.”

(On if he feels that the bye week came at the right time) …“Yeah, I’m a huge fan of the bye, especially at this point in my career. Whenever it wants to show up, I’m ready for it. If you want to have two of them, I’m cool with that too. But yeah, for me it definitely was the right time and I do think for our team as well. Obviously, a couple guys that were battling through some stuff that inevitably every team has and it’s nice to get those guys some extra rest and then just refreshed mentally as well for the rest of the season and whatever we’re guaranteed.”

(On how different or similar the Seahawks defense is now compared to week one) …“In some aspects it’s similar and in other aspects I think it’s different. I think (Seahawks Cornerback) (Devon Witherspoon) ‘21’ being in there… we missed him the first game and he’s a heck of a player. His energy jumps off the tape when you watch it, both when he’s covering guys and when he’s running the tackle and hit blitz into the backfield, whatever it is, he’s a playmaker all over the field so I’m sure they’re happy with what he’s been doing and he jumps off the tape. There are a few guys that we missed in the first game that are back and a couple that we played against that aren’t playing. So every week is a new challenge. I feel like they do a really nice job of mixing things up, keep you guessing as a quarterback. It’s on us to go out there and just execute our stuff at a high level and try to get a win.”

(On his early impressions of QB Carson Wentz) …“Yeah, eager to learn. Guy wants to come in and figure it out. He’s a big dude, throws it well, moves well. Just as far as out there on the practice field, you can tell it’s understandable the talent that he has and some of the success he’s had in this league. It’s somewhat obvious to me. So I’m happy to have him and just happy he’s getting a shot to come in and help us out.”

(On whether he’s expecting a setback with his injury) …“I mean anything is possible. I would hope not in practice, but we’ll see after that.”

                                                                                     –RAMS–