Sean McVay: Puka Nacua, Steve Avila & Joe Noteboom Could Miss More Than Next 4 Rams Games

It’s only been one week of the 2024 NFL season and the Los Angeles Rams have already been bitten by the injury bug. During their Week 1 loss to the Detroit Lions, the Rams lost three offense players to injury in wide receiver Puka Nacua (knee) and offensive linemen Steve Avila (knee) and Joe Noteboom (ankle).

All three did what they could to stay in the game but were unable to do so and have since been placed on injured reserve. That means they will miss at least the next four games before having the ability to be activated.

The good news for the Rams is that they have an early bye this year in Week 6, which means Nacua, Avila and Noteboom can get five weeks off while only missing four games.

Rams head coach Sean McVay didn’t sound too optimistic that would be the case though, discussing the possibility that all three guys will miss more time.

“Yeah, that’s the fortunate thing for us. Each of those three guys [Joe Noteboom, Steve Avila, and Nacua] that are you talking about, they each have unique injuries that as of right now, could keep them out longer than that,” McVay said. “We’ll see. What I think we want to be careful to do, and I’ve kind of learned this just through experience, let’s not place expectations on when they’re going to come back because these guys are so conscientious. Let’s allow them to be ready to go whenever their body says and when the doctors do say. I know they’re going to accelerate it and be ready as quickly as possible.

“I can’t even think about anything other than having a good practice today. We’ll be great. We’ll be better when we get those guys back. When that time is? I don’t know. To your point about the bye, it does give us a little bit of luxury of another week in between instead of having to miss a game because of where it falls.”

While being without three key players for the next month or so won’t be ideal, the Rams got lucky that none of them are season-ending injuries.

The Rams will need to win some games to stay afloat until they get pieces back though, which means that others will need to step up in their absence to avoid 2024 becoming a lost season.

Matthew Stafford proud of Cooper Kupp for performance in Rams opener

One person who did that for the Rams in Week 1 was Cooper Kupp, who showed he is back to his healthy and dominant self with a career-high 14 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Having a healthy Kupp will be important as long as Puka Nacua is out, and Matthew Stafford discussed how proud he is of his teammate for the work he put in this offseason to get back to his old self.