Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay said Monday he will not put a firm return date on Myles Garrett until doctors finish evaluating the arthroscopic knee surgery the star pass rusher just underwent.
Garrett will spend at least the next four games on injured reserve. That is the NFL minimum.
As shared by Stu Jackson of TheRams.com, McVay isn’t sure how long the team will be without Garrett.
“Sean McVay said he isn’t sure how long Myles Garrett will be out after knee surgery, partly because he didn’t want to put a timeline on it until he has all the information post-surgery,” Jackson reported. “Garrett will miss at least the next four games on Injured Reserve.”
McVay made clear the stay could stretch longer depending on how the knee responds.
“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.”
The problem had been building since training camp. Garrett sat out most practices with swelling in his left knee. Team officials still believed he could play through it when the Rams opened the season against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.
He could not. Garrett logged 40 of 65 snaps in the 27-7 loss and finished with zero tackles, zero sacks and zero quarterback hits. It was only the fourth time in his career he left a game without a tackle.
Afterward Garrett called the performance “the worst version of myself.” He said he spent more energy protecting the knee than attacking the 49ers’ offense.
McVay initially told reporters after the game that he believed Garrett was healthy. A conversation with the player later that night changed the plan. Surgery and injured reserve followed quickly.
The Rams paid a steep price to get Garrett from Cleveland in June. They sent 2024 Defensive Rookie of the Year Jared Verse, a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 second-round pick and a 2029 third-round pick.
Verse’s Browns debut was quiet. He finished with four tackles in a 34-10 loss to Jacksonville and recorded no sacks or quarterback hits.
Los Angeles now turns to Byron Young and the rest of the edge group while it waits. The defense generated no sacks in Australia.
Aaron Donald’s return from a two-year retirement was supposed to pair with Garrett and create one of the most imposing fronts in the league. Donald did not travel to Australia. McVay said Monday the team still has not decided whether the three-time Defensive Player of the Year will play Monday night 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.”
McVay also said the Rams never considered leaving Garrett in Los Angeles the way they held Donald out of the Australia trip.
The next four opponents are the Giants, Denver Broncos, Philadelphia Eagles and Buffalo Bills. The earliest Garrett can be activated is Week 6 against Arizona.
Garrett, 30, set the NFL single-season sack record with 23 last year and has 125.5 for his career. The Rams entered 2026 as Super Bowl favorites largely because of the additions of Garrett and Donald. That calculation just got more complicated.
McVay said the staff will learn from the decision to play him last week.
“Obviously we thought we were doing the right thing, but in hindsight, you’ll always be able to learn from it.”
