The Los Angeles Rams will not have their starting quarterback for their Week 13 game against division rival Seattle Seahawks.
Rams head coach Sean McVay announced on Friday that while Matthew Stafford had been cleared from the league's concussion protocol, the quarterback would not play on Sunday. Instead, McVay announced that John Wolford will start, and there is "a chance" that Bryce Perkins could see the field as well.
Stafford has missed two of Los Angeles' last three games due to concussion protocols as well as a neck injury. The neck injury is now what's keeping Stafford sidelined. Wolford started the first of those two games, which resulted in a loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Perkins started last week against the Kansas City Chiefs, a game that ended in the Rams' fifth consecutive defeat.
The injuries just keep piling up for L.A., which earlier this season placed Cooper Kupp, Joe Noteboom, David Edwards, Allen Robinson, A'Shawn Robinson, and Jordan Fuller (among others) on injured reserve. The Rams will also be without Aaron Donald this week as he deals with a high ankle sprain, and could be missing fill-in tackle Ty Nsekhe and center Brian Allen, though Nsekhe is, as of Friday, expected to play.
This season has obviously been a disappointing one for the Rams, but the blow is presumably lessened by their having won the Super Bowl last season. Still, they will be heading into the stretch run of this year as arguably the NFL's most injury-depleted team. Given Stafford's concussion issues and the elbow injury he has dealt with for much of the season, it would not be surprising if he did not take the field again until 2023.
