LOS ANGELES — Fresh off the high of their 21-19 victory over the Seattle Seahawks, the Rams (8-2) returned to practice on Wednesday with some sobering news.
Right tackle Rob Havenstein, tight end Tyler Higbee and safety Quentin Lake were all placed on injured reserve on Wednesday, knocking all three starters and leaders out for at minimum four games.
“Big losses for us,” said head coach Sean McVay, whose team is alone atop the NFC West while on a five-game winning streak.
Lake’s was the least surprising of the trio. McVay hinted at the possibility on Monday after the safety dislocated his left elbow injury against the Seahawks. Lake underwent successful surgery on the elbow on Tuesday.
The procedure will end Lake’s regular season, but there remains a possibility that he could return for the playoffs, McVay said.
The surgery ends an iron man streak for Lake. The fourth-year safety only missed two snaps this season prior to his elbow injury. In 2024, Lake played 1,207 of 1,252 possible snaps for the Rams’ defense in the regular season and playoffs. All the missed snaps came in a Week 18 loss to Seattle in which Lake and the rest of the Rams’ starters rested ahead of the playoffs with the NFC West title clinched.
But speaking with him this week about the diagnosis, McVay didn’t sense that the severity of the injury and the return timetable were weighing on Lake.
“Q is one of those guys where you sit there and you talk to him and you’re like, man, I wish I was like that,” McVay said. “Because his mindset is, ‘Man, I’m just grateful it’s not anything in my lower half and I can still walk around.’ And because it’s his left elbow, he can throw the ball around. It’s unbelievable, right? But that’s who he is.”
Higbee and Havenstein both could return after missing four games, McVay said, though that depends on how the veterans recover. That would they could return for a Week 16 rematch with the Seahawks in Seattle after missing this Sunday’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4) as well as contests against the Carolina Panthers, Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions.
Higbee rolled his ankle on a screen pass to Puka Nacua in the second half on Sunday. Havenstein, meanwhile, has been managing ankle soreness and knee bursitis. He missed three games earlier this season with the ankle injury. When he returned he was effective, but McVay said over time it became clear that the irritation in ankle and knee were limiting him on the field.
After speaking with Havenstein and the team’s medical staff, McVay said, they felt like the best approach would be the shut him down and allow him to heal.
“He’s been battling, he’s been pushing through,” McVay said. “I think the best approach is going be able to give him some time, see if we can end up turning the corner and allowing him to feel like he’s capable of. … He’ll continue to push, battle, fall on the sword. I think our job is sometimes protect these really tough guys from themselves.”
The Rams have the depth to withstand the injuries. The secondary will take a by-committee approach in Lake’s absence, as evidenced in Sunday’s contest. Third-year tackle Warren McClendon Jr. filled in ably in Havenstein’s absence earlier in the season, and tight ends Colby Parkinson, Davis Allen and Terrance Ferguson have already filled major roles for the offense the last four weeks.
But Lake and Havenstein are captains, and Higbee is a former captain who still carries a large leadership role for this team as one of two players with 10 years on tenure on the roster. And that’s a void that the Rams will have to find a way to fill moving forward.
“Those guys are going to be here, they’re going to continue to uplift and elevate those guys,” McVay said. “You don’t replace players like that. You don’t expect others to be able to do that, you expect the guys that are getting opportunities to step up to be the best versions of themselves. This is something that you deal with. … They’ll still be here, they’ll still be able to affect and influence things in a positive way.”