Rams LT Alaric Jackson stays silent on cause of suspension
LOS ANGELES — Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo returned to practice on Wednesday after serving their two-game suspensions to start the season.
Ahead of Sunday’s home opener against the San Francisco 49ers, Garoppolo slides back into the backup quarterback job behind Matthew Stafford after his suspension for performance-enhancing drug use that dated to his time with the Las Vegas Raiders. Jackson will resume his job as the starting left tackle after his suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.
Like head coach Sean McVay before him, Jackson opted not to reveal the exact violation that caused his suspension as he spoke with reporters on Wednesday for the first time since his punishment was handed down by the league office.
“That’s behind us now, I’m keeping it in-house right now,” Jackson said. “I was definitely selfish, but it’s behind me now and we’re going to move forward with it.”
Jackson said he found out about the league investigation “a while back,” but he did not offer a timeline of the situation. He said McVay and General Manager Les Snead were supportive of him following the suspension, and that he understood why the NFL handed out the penalty.
Without Jackson, the Rams shuffled through three different left tackles in their first two games. Joe Noteboom received the assignment in Week 1, then was replaced mid-game by practice squad call-up A.J. Arcuri after Noteboom suffered a high-ankle sprain. Second-year tackle Warren McClendon Jr. filled in at left tackle in Week 2.
“It was definitely tough,” Jackson said of watching that. “I felt bad about it, but it’s behind us now and we’re here today.”
“We certainly missed him in those two weeks that he wasn’t here,” McVay added. “We’ve put that behind him, want to be able to move forward and kinda, like I had mentioned, just kinda keep that in-house with respect to the situation.”
The Rams have three offensive linemen on injured reserve: guard Steve Avila (MCL sprain), tackle Conor McDermott (undisclosed) and Noteboom.