Amid their 33-13 win over the Oakland Raiders in Week 1, the 2018 Los Angeles Rams have their first injury crisis of the season. And, of all places, it’s at the return position.
Head Coach Sean McVay confirmed during his remarks to the press today that WR/KR/PR Pharoh Cooper is “out for a few weeks” while WR Mike Thomas, the backup kick returner, is “out for a little bit of time as well.”
Here were the specific quotes:
Pharoh (Cooper), he got his ankle pretty good. It might require it to get fixed. He’s getting a second opinion on that, so he’s going to be out for some time right now. So, that’s a big loss for us and then (WR) Mike Thomas, he tweaked his groin last night. He’s going to see a specialist. Hopefully we’ll get some good information, but he could be out for a little bit of time as well. We’ll have a little bit better opinion on both of those guys, but with Pharoh’s ankle, it’s definitely going to be something that’s going to limit him and keep him out for at least a few weeks. Mike will probably be the same.
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[Cooper] just got some loose fragments in there. It’s a pretty serious ankle sprain is basically the best way I can put it. But, when you end up spraining that ankle pretty bad, it can almost be sometimes – I remember when I was playing I ended up having a bad ankle sprain and they said you’d almost be better off breaking it just because of some of the ways that it can heal. It might require him to go in there and get that thing fixed, but he’s going to get a second opinion. However you cut it, especially with just the type of player that he is and the specific position that he plays, it’s going to limit him for at least a few weeks at a minimum. We’ll find out a little bit more as far as kind of what the plan of attack is with regards to his recovery in the next day or so.
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Thomas is the backup there, so that makes it really complicated. So, whether we handle that internally or we go outside for somebody else to figure that role out, those are things that we’ve kind of been discussing. In terms of making that final decision, that’ll be something that we’ll probably decide on in the next day or so.
We saw WR Cooper Kupp field punts last night in Cooper’s stead. The Raiders didn’t have a single kickoff in the second half thanks to the Rams’ stellar defense, so no indication who could handle things from kicks there, but it’d be fair to assume Kupp is handling both return duties as of now.
As for the injury crisis (CRISIS I SAY!), let’s see how things develop for Cooper and Thomas over the course of the week as they’re evaluated and any medical procedures take place.
Get well, boys.