Rams' Terrance Ferguson not expected back when IR window opens
Los Angeles' tight end is eligible to be activated next week, but a source says his ankle recovery will take some time, leaving the Rams thin at the position a while longer
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The Rams will get the option to bring tight end Terrance Ferguson back next week. They are not planning on being able to use it.
Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter): Rams TE Terrance Ferguson, who is eligible to come off IR next week, is not expected to be ready at that time. His recovery, in the words of a source, “will take some time.”
Ferguson went on injured reserve Oct. 2 with an ankle injury that worsened during the win over Denver, a move that guaranteed him at least four games on the sideline. That minimum runs out after this week, which is why the activation question came up at all, but the recovery has not progressed on the schedule the four-week window implied.
The timing is unwelcome for a position group that has been stretched thin since early October. Colby Parkinson was listed as questionable with knee and shoulder issues when Ferguson went down, having missed practice all week at that point, and Los Angeles has been piecing together its tight end reps since.
Ferguson's situation is one strand of a wider injury problem in Los Angeles. The Rams placed wide receiver Davante Adams and nose tackle Poona Ford on injured reserve Tuesday, with Adams headed for hamstring surgery, and kicker Blake Grupe is already on IR after the knee injury that sent the club looking for its third kicker in three weeks. That pileup has shaped the Rams' season more than any schematic question, and it explains why Ferguson's return would matter beyond the depth chart.
For now the expectation is that the Rams keep working without him. The activation window opening is not the same as a player being ready, and Los Angeles is treating this one as a recovery that still needs time rather than a decision to be made next week.