{"id":317117,"date":"2025-08-25T19:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/317117\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:33:12","slug":"matthew-stafford-likely-to-play-rams-opener-will-alaric-jackson-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/317117\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Stafford likely to play Rams’ opener. Will Alaric Jackson too?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford<\/a> appears on track to start the season opener against the Houston Texans \u2014 and now perhaps his primary protector will join him in the preparation.<\/p>\n

Left tackle Alaric Jackson<\/a>, who has been sidelined because of blood-clot issues in his legs, will participate in full-team drills for the first time next week, coach Sean McVay said Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a good plan in place,\u201d McVay said.<\/p>\n

Jackson, 27, signed a three-year, $35-million extension in March. But in June, he was diagnosed with blood-clot issues for the second time in his career, and the Rams hurriedly signed veteran tackle D.J. Humphries.<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams offensive tackle Alaric Jackson stretches with teammates during training camp at Loyola Marymount on July 24.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Whether Jackson can play in the Sept. 7 opener against the Texans, or any time this season, will be determined by how he responds to the increased workload while managing the condition.<\/p>\n

McVay and the Rams are hoping Jackson\u2019s trajectory is similar to Stafford\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Stafford, sidelined all of training camp and several weeks of practices because of a back issue, returned last week and completed three workouts and a jog-through with no setbacks. He was on the field Monday and continued to look sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s doing a heck of a job taking care of himself with a lot of different things,\u201d McVay said of Stafford, adding, \u201cI can\u2019t see into the future, but if you look at what the last week has entailed, feel really good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that would lead me to believe, unless we have an unforeseen setback, that he\u2019s not going to be ready to roll against the Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having Jackson available to protect Stafford\u2019s blindside would be a plus for a Rams team regarded as a Super Bowl contender.<\/p>\n

The Rams have experience dealing with Jackson\u2019s issue.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the season of the Rams\u2019 historic post-Super Bowl collapse, Jackson sat out eight games because of a blood-clot issue.<\/p>\n

Since training camp began, Jackson has been doing individual work with trainers. But he has lined up with starters during jog-throughs. Jackson\u2019s participation in full-team drills starting next Monday will be another milestone for the fifth-year pro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy for him that all things are pointing to him being ready to go and being able to manage this,\u201d McVay said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of work behind the scenes of being educated on how many people have really been able to deal with this. … Feel really fortunate that that\u2019s the direction that we\u2019re trending in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Etc.<\/p>\n

Initial 53-man rosters must be set by Tuesday at 1 p.m. PDT. McVay said the Rams already have made their decisions. \u2026 Rookie outside linebacker Josaiah Stewart is in concussion protocol, McVay said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford appears on track to start the season opener against the Houston Texans \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2079],"tags":[54073,59105,7,59106,253,59107,789,8023,1014,58,2444,2611,32,3687,6,11943,424,3307,47495,3177,8896],"class_list":{"0":"post-317117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-rams","8":"tag-back-issue","9":"tag-blood-clot-issue","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-full-team-drill","12":"tag-houston-texans","13":"tag-individual-work","14":"tag-jackson","15":"tag-last-week","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-rams","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangelesrams","20":"tag-matthew-stafford","21":"tag-mcvay","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-opener","24":"tag-rams","25":"tag-sean-mcvay","26":"tag-second-time","27":"tag-stafford","28":"tag-training-camp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115091079865618178","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}