(East Los Angeles, CA) [From the Editor’s Desk]: The Rams are back home and in their week of strict preparation for their big Monday Night Football (MNF) matchup against the (1-0) New York Giants, who defeated the Dallas Cowboys in their Week 1 home game. With a return to a normal practice schedule, Coach McVay held his traditional media availability. 

Much of the questioning during the early 9:00 am Zoom call focused on Myles Garrett’s injury status, other frontline players who sustained injuries, performances of Quentin Lake and Blake Corum, and when Aaron Donald would play his first game as an unretired Rams player. 

Read Coach McVay’s insights on the topics above and a few additional ones. As always, we recommend you get ready, relax in your usual way, and gain a deeper understanding directly from the Head Coach.

Rams Transcripts-Head Coach Sean McVay-9/14/26, Monday

[Head Coach Sean McVay]

(On whether the team talked about how to maintain OLB Myles Garrett’s injury to avoid missing time)
“The reality is our job is to put our players and our team in positions to have successful outcomes. I thought we would take an approach where he’d be feeling good enough to go, contribute positive change, and be the player that he’s capable of. That wasn’t the case and so the next right thing for us is to be able to get this thing fixed. In the meantime, we’ll look forward to whenever that time is that we get him back, but that was what went into the decision and now we’re moving forward.”

(On what the coaching staff learned from the game)
“There are a lot of things. You know me, the first thing we’ll always do is look inward. How many ways can we put our guys in positions to have successful outcomes? Then, what are the things within the framework of what we’re being asked? Are we playing the techniques? Are we playing with the play style? There are so many things that I’m excited about just moving forward. That game, you give the Niners credit, like I talked about. That is over with. That’s in our rearview mirror. We’re all eyes moving forward. We’ll make our corrections and then we figure out, how do we establish the identity, the play style, the different things that we want to be able to have come to life, and how do we really continue to emphasize that? Because what we emphasize with this group, we get, and we’re just excited about moving forward.”

(On when they made the decision to put Garrett on Injured Reserve)
“It was right after. After I talked with him after the game, after I had spoken with you guys, and seeing how he felt. We thought it was something that we’d be able to manage that wasn’t necessarily the case. Having that evidence and then being able to say, ‘What’s the next right thing?’ It was right after the game in terms of listening to how he felt, how he was able to impact the game, and even what you guys saw with how limited we had to be with him. Obviously we thought we were doing the right thing, but in hindsight, you’ll always be able to learn from it. I’ll never hang on to whether you want to say it was a mistake or just different things to be able to change course if that’s the right line of trajectory. It was right after the game that we knew that was the direction that we thought and obviously you’re talking to him and seeing how he and his group feels. That’s what we made the decision on.”

(On whether DE Aaron Donald not traveling played a factor in having Garrett play Week 1 and whether missing Week 1 was also a conversation with Garrett)
“No, the direction that we went with [OLB] Myles [Garrett] and the direction we went with [DE] Aaron [Donald] are totally separate situations and circumstances. With Myles, it was more along the lines of we had been aware of this, thought it was something that he would be able to work through. Obviously being out there and playing in a real game, you learn, hey, maybe that’s not the case so let’s change course with that, and then Aaron is more just getting him up to speed.”

(On Garrett’s recovery timeline)
“I don’t really, yet. I think it’s all contingent upon how did things go today? You feel good about it, but I think it’d be unfair to him without having the totality of all the information to put any sort of timeline on it. We know that he’ll be available in four weeks potentially and we’ll take that a day at a time.”

(On OLB Josaiah Stewart’s growth and potential for a bigger role in Garrett’s absence)
“I’ve seen consistent growth. I thought he did a lot of good things the other day. I think he’s a complete player that can really be a positive contributor in both phases, defending the run, rushing the passer. He’ll be asked to step up, as will everybody in that group. I’m confident in those guys and excited. That’s a lot of the group that we’ve been playing with throughout the course of camp as well.”

(On whether Donald will play on Monday night)
“We haven’t decided that yet. He’s going to continue to work his process and we’ll see what that looks like.”

(On balancing Donald’s comeback and the loss of Garrett to injury)
“They don’t have anything to do with one another. It’s more about Aaron and how he can contribute to the collective. What does that look like with how he’s feeling to be able to resume 11-on-11 and being able to play and do the things that he’s capable of? Aaron’s situation is totally independent of Myles.”

(On whether Donald puts pressure on himself)
“I don’t know if I look at it as pressure or just the standards that he has for himself are different than I think anyone could place on him. I think that’s been consistent with the greats that I’ve been around. There’s an intrinsic motivation. There’s a rage to master your craft. There’s an ability to pick things up quickly in your domain. He’s checking all those boxes. This guy is as driven as anybody as I’ve been around, the work capacity, the competitive stamina. I love everything this guy is about.”

(On if he expects Donald to play at the same level as he was when he retired)
“I do. That’s what my expectations are and my level of confidence in him.”

(On whether Garrett communicated his injury during the game)
“I didn’t get a chance to… I know that he wasn’t capable of being the player that he is and that was something after the game, after I’d even spoken with you guys… I know (reporter) had asked me about that afterwards. We knew that we were managing a situation. It was why he had missed so much practice time. Felt like he was still going to be able to affect and influence positive change. Then getting out there in those true settings revealed, ok, maybe that wasn’t the case and what’s the next right thing for us? And that’s the next step that we took.”

(On injury updates for ILB Nate Landman, S Kam Curl and TE Davis Allen)
“Yeah. [S] Kam Curl returned. He’s good. He had some ankle soreness. [ILB Nate] Landman got his shoulder and his thumb. We’ll be smart with him throughout this week, but we expect him to be ready to go. Then Davis returned to the game as well. So that’s positive on those three guys, as far as what you’re asking.”

(On the performances of S Quentin Lake and RB Blake Corum)
“I thought [S] ‘Q’ [Quentin Lake] did a great job. ‘Q’ is active. He has a bunch of different roles that he’s playing for us. His communication, his ownership, his understanding, that pick was a great play by him. Then he was really active in the run game. He’s going to continue to be a big factor. I thought [RB] Blake [Corum] did a nice job with the opportunities that he did have. The one good cutback run, had some good things. I think there are always growth opportunities for everybody, but those two guys are going to be major positive contributors for us. They’re going to be key factors for us. I don’t think really the game the other day was really any sort of reflection of the way that we want to play in any of the three phases on a consistent basis, even though there were some positive things that we saw. I’m excited about how we can say, ‘Hey, what does that identity look like as we continue to establish it, learn about this team? How do we put them in the most favorable spots and then how can our play style come to life where we can play complementary ball off of one another?’ The other day, like I told you guys, one of those humbling days. We correct it. We look at ourselves in the mirror and we say, ‘How can we move forward and be a part of the solution?’ And it’s exactly what you’re going to get from this group.”

(On ‘guarding’ the team from overreacting to the Week 1 result and continuing to sustain the run game)
“The first thing is I think you talk about it. It’s more about, hey, let’s be totally and completely present. Let’s not ignore the things that we can learn from, but we can’t lose twice to that. We’ve got to be able to move forward. All the things that I discussed afterwards, I feel that much stronger about it. The only way that I know to get this taste out of my mouth is to go back to work, apply the growth mindset, all the things that we’ve talked about. I thought there were a lot of positives in the run game. I’m not interested in necessarily what the final numbers [are]. I’m looking at the removal, the space that we created. There are always going to be areas of improvement, but I did think that we did a nice job in terms of creating space, being able to reset the line of scrimmage and doing some different things like that. There were some things we can build on for sure there.”

(On whether ILB Omar Speights had an injury coming out of the game)
“He did. He got a little bit of a hip pointer. He’s got some swelling there, but we’ll manage him throughout the week. He’s feeling better than what we had anticipated. He’s as tough as it gets. He’s making positive gains right now.”

(On whether he anticipated adversity this early into the season)
“I don’t have a crystal ball. These are the opportunities to really separate yourself with how you handle them. And what we’re not going to do is change. It’s easy to be positive, say all these things before you have it, but now here you go. You get tested. I’m more interested in seeing than anything that I say or that we say. How do we go back to work? How do we make sure that we’re playing at the level that we’re capable of? We’re committed to our process. Then ultimately, when we get our next opportunity to swing, let’s go be courageous enough to go do that. I’m excited about putting everything I got into that with this group.”

(On the overall offensive performance in Week 1)
“The lack of efficiency and effectiveness in the pass game prevented us from getting any continuity. We weren’t able to sustain drives. We weren’t efficient on the conversion downs. There are a lot of things that we could really go through there, but the big area of focus improvement will be in regard to the pass game and some of the different things that we can do collectively. And like I told you, it always starts with me.”

–RAMS–