{"id":462777,"date":"2026-09-13T19:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462777\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T19:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T19:56:11","slug":"myles-garretts-knee-injury-a-major-warning-sign-for-rams-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/462777\/","title":{"rendered":"Myles Garrett’s knee injury a major warning sign for Rams defense"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a little more than a week on \u201cMonday Night Football,\u201d the Rams<\/a> will don their new \u201cFearsome White\u201d uniforms<\/a>, which honor the era of the team\u2019s legendary Fearsome Foursome defensive line of the late 1960s and \u201870s.<\/p>\n

After a season-opening performance more fragile than fearsome, the Rams\u2019 defensive front has work to do if it aims to compare.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll have to do it without Myles Garrett<\/a>, a two-time NFL defensive player of the year, who will undergo surgery<\/a> on his left knee and will be placed on injured reserve, meaning he\u2019ll miss at least the next four games.<\/p>\n

A unit that featured edge rushers Garrett and Byron Young<\/a> and linemen Kobie Turner<\/a> and Braden Fiske<\/a> seemingly had all the makings of an elite group. And that was before Aaron Donald<\/a> came out of retirement to join a team favored to win Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Young was voted to the Pro Bowl last season after recording 12 sacks.<\/p>\n

Turner entered a contract year coming off a 2025 performance that featured seven sacks.<\/p>\n

And Fiske finally was healthy after playing through a knee injury that slowed him last season.<\/p>\n

But after a humiliating, season-opening defeat<\/a> by the San Francisco 49ers in Australia \u2014 Donald did not make the trip \u2014 expectations were thrown for a loss.<\/p>\n

The vaunted front was nearly invisible. The Rams hit 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy a grand total of two times. They had zero sacks.<\/p>\n

Purdy passed for three touchdowns, including a 39-yard strike after dropping back with no pressure.<\/p>\n

Garrett looked nothing like the intimidator who piled up 125\u00bd sacks in nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns, including an NFL-record 23 last season.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

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The Rams lose to the San Francisco 49ers 27-7 in the 2026 season opener at Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia on Friday.<\/p>\n

A knee injury that sidelined Garrett for most of training camp and preseason practices had to be a major concern for coach Sean McVay<\/a> and defensive coordinator Chris Shula going into the 49ers game.<\/p>\n

It was certainly on Garrett\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n

The seven-time All-Pro played 40 of 65 snaps. For only the fourth time in his career, Garrett did not make a tackle. Afterward, he acknowledged that at times he was more focused on trying to stay healthy than on what the 49ers were doing. He said it was \u201cthe worst version of myself that I\u2019ve put out there\u201d and that he was intent on making sure he would be better.<\/p>\n

Turner made seven tackles, Fiske two. Young, who was limited during training camp and the preseason because of a lingering knee injury, made one.<\/p>\n

Reserve Tyler Davis had seven tackles, Josaiah Stewart six tackles and one quarterback hit.<\/p>\n

But the Rams were largely ineffective front to back. That should fuel optimism for opponents who spent the offseason watching the Rams assemble what appeared to be a super team.<\/p>\n

The 49ers rushed for 174 yards. With the Rams\u2019 line unable to pressure Purdy, the remade secondary gave up touchdown passes. Safety Quentin Lake\u2019s interception was the lone defensive highlight.<\/p>\n

McVay has more to fix than the defense. A team that led the NFL in offense and scoring last season scored only one touchdown. And the kickoff-coverage unit gave up a 45-yard return that set up a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Donald could play for the first time since 2023 in the next game, the Rams\u2019 primetime home opener against the New York Giants, which would provide a spark to a front in need of a confidence boost.<\/p>\n

Regardless, the Rams will spend this week moving on from their embarrassing loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be something that\u2019s good for us to look at and understand how teams going forward are going to try to stop our rush,\u201d Turner said, \u201cSo we can attack that head-on and we can figure out what\u2019s our solution, how do we just play fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fearsomely fast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a little more than a week on \u201cMonday Night Football,\u201d the Rams will don their new \u201cFearsome…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[77645,122647,10840,42215,70887,29917,48,52,51,3376,47,50,49,42893,182275,11706,10947,11588,16545,427,780],"class_list":["post-462777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-aaron-donald","tag-braden-fiske","tag-byron-young","tag-garrett","tag-knee-injury","tag-kobie-turner","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-season","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-myles-garrett","tag-purdy","tag-ram","tag-rams","tag-sack","tag-tackle","tag-team","tag-touchdown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}