WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – The Rams on Wednesday placed safety Quentin Lake (elbow), tight end Tyler Higbee (ankle) and offensive lineman Rob Havenstein (knee, ankle) on Injured Reserve.
As a result, those three players will miss at least Los Angeles' next four games: Sunday night versus the Buccaneers, at the Panthers in Week 13, at the Cardinals in Week 14, and home versus the Lions in Week 15. The earliest potential return, therefore, would be the Rams' Week 16 Thursday Night Football game against the Seahawks in Seattle.
"We'll have hope and optimism that all those guys will return at some point," McVay said.
McVay said Lake had elbow surgery on Tuesday for a dislocated left elbow. Asked about Lake's timeline and whether he could return during the regular season, McVay said "it's hard to say."
"I know this, the surgery went well," McVay said. "I think they were really encouraged with some of the specifics and I'd be a little bit out of my element getting too granular there. But talking with (head team physician) Dr. (Neal) ElAttrache, talking with (senior vice president, sports medicine and performance) Reggie (Scott), even talking with 'Q' today, I don't think it's out of the question if you earn an opportunity to be able to play after the regular season that he could potentially play."
According to McVay, Havenstein's situation is something Havenstein has been dealing with. McVay said Havenstein had "been battling, been pushing through his ankle, his knee" and been "kind of sore" and "there had been some things going on." McVay said he thought Havenstein played really well when he return from his ankle injury, but it progressively began to irritate Havenstein enough that it affected his ability to play to his capability.
Just as when Havenstein missed time earlier this season with that ankle injury, Warren McClendon Jr. will start in his place at right tackle.
"And when you're doing the things that are asked of that position, particularly up front, sometimes it's one of those deals that you have to do right by the players," McVay said. "When you talk about a guy like him (Havenstein), he'll continue to push, battle, he'll fall on the sword, and I think our job is to be able to sometimes protect these really tough guys from themselves, and then to be able to take that information that I'm getting from Reggie, from the totality of it all. He ended up getting kind of like a bursitis where his knee's swollen too. And so there's nobody that would push through more than him. And sometimes you have to be able to protect these guys from themselves. But he's such a phenomenal leader for us. He'll do such a great job in the meantime of uplifting and elevating the group just like he's done. And then we'll look forward to being able to get him back when he's feeling better and capable of playing the way that we're accustomed to seeing Rob play. "
