Rams aren't likely to return Myles Garrett to practice this week

Published October 10, 2026 11:05 PM The update that Rams coach Sean McVay promised on Monday to deliver on Thursday regarding defensive end Myles Garrett arrived on Saturday.Garrett, who landed on injured reserve after Week 1 due to knee surgery, can return to practice after Week 5, the fourth game he’ll miss. The Rams currently don’t plan to open his practice window.“He’s making good progress, but what I will say is he’s not ready to say whether we’ll open that window or not,” McVay told reporters on Saturday. "[T]he surgery went really well. He’s making good progress as far as what that timeline looks like. It’s week to week in terms of how he feels, but I would say it’s more likely that we do not start his clock next week. When I talk to Neal ElAttrache, and I think it’s a great way to articulate it, there’s a difference between return to play and return to performance. When you do something like this, let’s put him in a good position to return to performance. Part of that will be once he gets to those benchmarks where he’s hitting all the benchmarks that we want, then let’s physically put him in a position to do things that are in alignment with playing football, see how the knee responds, which we expect it to respond well and then that’s when you can really start talking about, ‘Okay, he’s going to play for us,’ and things of that nature.”McVay also was asked whether the lack of practice time in training camp will be a factor in the decision.“I think a lot of that was because we were trying to manage a situation that we’re hoping to be able to work through,” McVay said. “A lot of that really stemmed from the irritation in the knee so hopefully that’s gone and it’s really, how quickly can the alien get up to speed for us? But, no, I think because we got that fixed and because he’s feeling so good, I think that’ll be an accelerated process. Him actually doing football-related activities and drills will be very important for us to put him in a position to join the group and be the guy that we’re accustomed to seeing and that he wants to be for this team as well.” Garrett apparently ignored the knee issue until he got into the game against the 49ers in Australia and realized it wasn’t something he could play through. That resulted in the fairly quick decision to have the knee surgically repaired, with the goal of getting the 2025 NFL Defensive Player of the Year up to speed and ready to do what the Rams hope he’ll be able to do.With Garrett unlikely to return to practice this week, that means he’ll miss the Week 6 game against the Cardinals. After that, the Rams play the Raders, Chargers, Chargers, Commanders, and Cardinals again before their Week 11 bye.