INGLEWOOD \u2014 Matthew Stafford missed nearly a month of the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 training camp with an aggravated disk in his back, and Alaric Jackson only joined practice this week after being sidelined for the whole summer with blood clots.<\/p>\n
The quarterback and his left tackle are healthy for the regular season, but they\u2019ll get no warmup before facing the Houston Texans and their potentially dominant defense Sunday.<\/p>\n
If Stafford hadn\u2019t already seen and done just about everything in his 17-year career, he might seem a bit more stressed about the high degree of difficulty under which he\u2019ll take his first snaps of the season. While Houston pass rushers Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are elite, the Texans also finished second in the league in interceptions last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a ton of respect for them,\u201d said Stafford, who needs 191 yards passing to become the 10th quarterback to throw for 60,000 yards. \u201cI\u2019m going to go play the game. Whatever happens, happens. I\u2019m playing like I always play. I have no issues with a physical game. Obviously, I would love to stay as clean as possible, but I\u2019m not thinking twice about that at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stafford also will get his first chance to throw to new receiver Davante Adams in this meeting of 2024 division champions.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Rams\u2019 defensive coaching staff is scheming against a familiar face: Nick Caley, Los Angeles\u2019 tight ends coach last season, will debut as the Texans\u2019 offensive coordinator after spending the past two years under Sean McVay, who is 6-2 in openers.<\/p>\n
C.J. Stroud is playing in his native Southern California for the first time since he passed for 573 yards and six touchdowns while leading Ohio State to victory in the spectacular 2022 Rose Bowl. The third-year quarterback grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, roughly an hour east of downtown in the vast Los Angeles metroplex.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got some family coming to the game, and friends,\u201d Stroud said. \u201cSuper excited, but just got to stay focused.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stroud also faces a challenge from the Rams\u2019 vaunted defensive line, led by Jared Verse and Braden Fiske. The Texans revamped their offensive line after Stroud was sacked 52 times last season, second-most in the league.<\/p>\n
Houston traded longtime left tackle Laremy Tunsil to Washington, and right tackle Tytus Howard is the only returning starter. The Texans will rely on second-round pick Aireontae Ersery to protect Stroud\u2019s blind side after he started 38 games at left tackle over three seasons at Minnesota.<\/p>\n
Coach DeMeco Ryans wasn\u2019t in the mood to answer questions on Wednesday about the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody wants to know who\u2019s going out there, who is this guy at this position, that position,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a lot of talk that I\u2019m, quite frankly, tired of talking about. It\u2019s time to go play and let\u2019s see how our five matches up against a really great defensive line.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rams are not expected to have a rookie starter, and it\u2019s likely that only two new starters will debut at SoFi Stadium alongside Adams and center Coleman Shelton, who returned after one season away. Veteran Poona Ford takes over at nose tackle, and Nate Landman is the Rams\u2019 starting inside linebacker and defensive signal-caller.<\/p>\n
Nick Chubb will be Houston\u2019s running back for at least the first four weeks with Joe Mixon on the reserve\/non-football injury list with an offseason foot injury.<\/p>\n
Chubb, a four-time Pro Bowler, looks to return to form in his first season with the Texans after playing just 10 games combined in the last two seasons while dealing with various injuries. Before that, Chubb had four straight 1,000-yard rushing seasons for the Browns, capped by a career-high 1,525 yards in 2022.<\/p>\n
Ryans has raved about Chubb since he was signed this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cNick won\u2019t surprise me in the game. I know what I\u2019m going to get from Nick Chubb,\u201d he said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy I\u2019ve watched for a long time. He\u2019s done it at a high level for a long time. … I expect to see a physical running back who\u2019s going to gain positive yards every time he touches the football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chubb\u2019s backups include rookie Woody Marks, who rushed for 1,133 yards in an excellent season at Southern California last fall.<\/p>\n
McVay has faced Houston only twice previously in his career, and the Texans are visiting SoFi Stadium for the first time. But Ryans and McVay developed a healthy mutual respect during Ryans\u2019 six seasons on San Francisco\u2019s coaching staff, including two as the Niners\u2019 defensive coordinator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD \u2014 Matthew Stafford missed nearly a month of the Los Angeles Rams\u2019 training camp with an aggravated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[265,647,637,1028,7,5446,636,221,253,2368,58,122,6,47682,47359,84,47357,1890,47358,587,632,635,9,638,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-349033","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-american-football","9":"tag-american-football-competitions","10":"tag-american-football-teams","11":"tag-c-j-stroud","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-gridiron-football","14":"tag-gridiron-football-variants","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-texans","17":"tag-houstontexans","18":"tag-los-angeles-rams","19":"tag-national-football-league","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-nfl-competitions","22":"tag-nfl-franchise-relocations","23":"tag-nfl-playoffs","24":"tag-nfl-seasons","25":"tag-nfl-teams","26":"tag-nfl-teams-seasons","27":"tag-nick-chubb","28":"tag-seasons-in-american-football","29":"tag-seasons-in-american-sport","30":"tag-sports","31":"tag-team-sports","32":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115163270245562926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349033","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=349033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}