Rams injury epidemic accelerates, and team may be in free fall after 2 games

It's only Week 3 on the 2024 NFL schedule, but the LA Rams roster is showing more injuries than a team that has competed in a full season's worth of games. And the problem is, the rate of injuries is not only not subsiding, but the team's ailments appear to be accelerating at a faster rate. That's creating huge problems for this team, perhaps a greater problem than the team's 0-2 start to the season.

The team's Week 2 casualties include oft-injured WR Cooper Kupp (ankle), oft-injured IOL Jonah Jackson (shoulder), and even veteran defensive back John Johnson III (shoulder). Even rookie kicker Joshua Karty is fighting through a groin pull, but he is expected to be able to play through the injury and kick in Week 3.

Three more starters for the team are now out for an extended period of time, and the team has only had two games under their belt. That's a lot of bodies to push to the annual IR list, and we've already witnessed the product that this team puts onto a football field before this latest wave of injuries is taken into consideration.

We have seen the struggles on offense. But the Rams secondary, struggling to get a foothold of competence, may have lost its best and most dependable player in John Johnson III. After two games, his Pro Football Focus grade of 90.7 confirms what his optics have indicated, that he is having an incredible season.

And yet, it appears that he will have a rather lengthy intermission as well:

Durability is becoming a huge issue for a team that was hammered by injuries as recently as 2022. The impact of so many injuries was so devastating that the team reset the roster and scrubbed thte team to 'start over,' by loading up on rookies in both the 2023 and 2024 NFL season. But has that simply encouraged the coaching staff to rely too heavily too quickly on the remaining veterans?

The early results of the 2024 NFL season are inconclusive but do show a bias of injuries occurring more frequently with veteran players. At the team's current injury rate, this team will be out of the running and at record injury levels as early as their Week 6 BYE.

If this team is to have any hope of success, the team will need to hit bedrock with injuries soon. That means that the team cannot emerge from games with fewer healthy players than they entered. Tough task? Perhaps. But winning starts with continuity. Right now, this team has neither.

As always, thanks for reading.