Health
McVay: Was clear after Rams' loss that Garrett needed knee surgery
Key Points
While the thought was defensive end Myles Garrett could play through his knee injury, it became clear after the Los Angeles Rams' Week 1 loss that he needed to have surgery, head coach Sean McVay said. Garrett missed most of training camp while dealing with what McVay called swelling in his knee. McVay said the thought was Garrett could play though the injury, but it was obvious in the Rams' loss to the San Francisco 49ers that was not the case.
LOS ANGELES -- While the thought was defensive end Myles Garrett could play through his knee injury, it became clear after the Los Angeles Rams' Week 1 loss that he needed to have surgery, head coach Sean McVay said.
Garrett missed most of training camp while dealing with what McVay called swelling in his knee. McVay said the thought was Garrett could play though the injury, but it was obvious in the Rams' loss to the San Francisco 49ers that was not the case. The game was Garrett's first without a tackle since Week 11 of the 2024 season and just the fourth of his career, according to ESPN Research.
"Thought we would take an approach where he'd be feeling good enough to go contribute positive change and be the player that he's capable of," McVay said. "That wasn't the case. And so the next right thing for us is to be able to get this thing fixed."
McVay said he does not have a timeline for how many games Garrett will miss and would not until he has more information on how the surgery goes. McVay said Garrett's timeline to return from his knee injury is contingent upon how "things go today." Garrett will miss at least the next four games while on injured reserve.
McVay also said the Rams have not decided whether defensive tackle Aaron Donald will play in Week 2 on "Monday Night Football" against the New York Giants.
"We haven't decided that yet," McVay said. "He's going to continue to work his process and we'll see what that looks like."
After the game in Melbourne, Australia, McVay was asked whether Garrett was 100% healthy. McVay said, "To my knowledge, yeah."
McVay said Monday that when he spoke to Garrett after that news conference, it became clear that was not the case. McVay said the decision for Garrett to have surgery and go on injured reserve came not long after.
"It was right after the game just in terms of listening to how he felt, how he was able to impact the game, and even just what you guys saw with how limited that we had to be with him," McVay said. "Obviously we thought we were doing the right thing, but in hindsight, you'll always be able to learn from it. I'll never hang on to whether you want to say it was a mistake or just different things to be able to change course if that's the right line of trajectory."
When Garrett spoke after the game, the pass rusher said he was playing through an injury.
"When I was out there, I was a little bit more focused on myself and trying to stay healthy than what they were doing, and that showed," Garrett said. "I wasn't who I needed to be for my team."