WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Rams offensive lineman Alaric Jackson spent last summer battling blood clots for the second time in his young NFL career, diagnosed with it nearly three months after signing a three-year contract extension with the team.
While the first instance was "provoked clots" which formed in his lungs, this time it was "provoked clots" that had formed in his lower leg.
As the team worked through the situation with him, it signed a pair of veteran offensive tackles as insurance just in case. Fortunately, that insurance was only required to be used once – when Jackson missed Week 17 against the Falcons with a knee injury.
Reflecting on being able to start 19 of the Rams' 20 games this season across the regular season and playoffs, Jackson's appreciation began with head coach Sean McVay, senior vice president of sports medicine and performance Reggie Scott, and other members of the organization for their support during that time to put him in a position to be successful.
"It was good, man," Jackson told theRams.com Monday. "It was amazing, for sure. I'm glad was here with the Rams, because they're a good organization overall. Sean understood, Reggie, (general manager) Les (Snead) and everyone in the whole building understood was going through, they were there for me for the whole time. So that was probably the best thing for me overall, just to have that support system behind me and just play ball. So it felt good to be here and get over the hump."
In training camp, Jackson was limited to individual drills and jog-throughs before working off to the side with trainers when team drills began.
His rehab workouts included running, working on the VersaClimber machine, biking, lifting and plyometrics. They ramped up as he progressed, but he said he wasn't allowed to engage in head-on-head contact because of the medication he was taking, which ruled out live reps. He didn't return to team drills until the Wednesday of Week 1 – meaning, the first week of September.
Jackson worked with Scott's group, team trainers and outside specialists to get ready for Week 1. Once the season began, he had to get ultrasounds after every game, continue with regular tests, and fill out a QR code daily to update his status. McVay also said in early September "it's always something that you have to manage." The team gave Jackson rest days on Fridays as part of a modified workload for him.
"Just being behind and playing well," Jackson said, when asked what he was most proud of in terms of personal growth and accomplishment this season. "Because I wasn't there at training camp, I couldn't do any of that stuff. I couldn't do anything up until the first game of the season. So just being able to take this stuff from off the field, from on the side, to on the field, and then playing well."
Indeed he did. According to TruMedia, Jackson allowed just four sacks and 38 pressures across 1,007 snaps played (585 pass blocking) in the regular season. Beyond pass protection, he was also a strong run-blocker: His Pro Football Focus run blocking grade of 84.3 ranked 10th-highest among all offensive tackles. For a Los Angeles offense led by MVP candidate Matthew Stafford that finished with the NFL's No. 1 scoring offense and No. 1 total offense, and a resurgent run game led by Kyren Williams and Blake Corum, Jackson certainly had a hand in it when healthy.
When the Rams announced their end-of-year team awards in the first week of January, Jackson was the recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award, given to a player who is a role model of inspiration, sportsmanship and courage. Jackson said those blood clots are "more controlled now," and combined with that previously established plan, will help him as he resumes offseason training.
Head coach Sean McVay on Monday praised Jackson for his consistency throughout the 2025 season, as well as his work ethic on and away from the practice field.
"I think consistency is the truest measure of performance. He's consistently played at a really high level. He's shown a mental toughness, a fortitude and a physical toughness," McVay said. "I think that we've only continued to get to know him better and how to be able to help him continue to thrive. He's an intrinsically motivated guy. He works really hard, does a lot of individual work on his own body maintenance, extra time with [Director of Strength and Conditioning] Justin Lovett and the strength coaches. He's always out there after practice pouring into younger guys or doing some different things and he just wants to be great. He's in the position to continue to ascend. I thought he was outstanding for us. I think he's only going to continue to build. I was really proud of him and I'm happy for just the growth over time. When you look at the amount of things that he did when we found out about some of those things he was going to have to overcome just from a medical perspective and for him to do what he did in the absence of a lot of the work that's necessary to callous your body and sharpen your skills, it's a tremendous tribute to him. It's a tremendous tribute to the doctors as well and his ability to be able to follow suit. Awesome job. He was a stud for us this year."
