9 bold predictions for the Los Angeles Rams for the 2024 season

(6) TE Tyler Higbee won't be return before November

We know that the Rams offense hopes to get starting tight end Tyler Higbee back in the saddle as quickly but as fully as possible. But this is another case where the Rams have taken enough adequate steps to reinforce the depth of the tight end position to allow Higbee to heal fully before pushing to return to the roster.

In fact, based on the injuries to cornerback and offensive tackles, don't look for Higbee to return to the active roster before November. Here's why:

NFL teams are limited to activating eight players from Injured Reserve back to their active roster. As of right now, the Rams have CB Darious Williams (hamstring), OT KT Leveston (ankle), DT Larrell Murchison (arm), and TE Tyler Higbee (ACL) on IR with the possibility of returning after four weeks time. If all four return to the 53-man Rams roster after four weeks, the team has exhausted half of their allotment of IR returns in the first month of play.

I just cannot see the team burning through so many of those eight transactions so quickly.

Right now, the Rams have three tight ends on the roster: Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen, and Hunter Long. While we have yet to see what they can do in this offense, one thing has been obvious. The coaching staff loves all three.

Even as Hunter Long has yet to catch a pass in this offense, he made the Rams roster. Was that a mistake? Perhaps. But the coaching staff was committed to carrying three tight-ends in an offense that is almost entirely run through an 11-personnel package. So either the Rams intend on leaning more heavily into running their 12-personnel package on offense, or the team has screwed up the allotment of roster slots.

Either way, the team cannot carry four tight ends. Not with injuries ravaging offensive tackles and cornerbacks. So Tyler Higbee will simply wait on the IR/PUP for a couple of months. Or more.