Rams’ WR Clayton Out For The Year With Knee Injury

Added on Oct 11, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

Even for a team used to setbacks, this is particularly bad news–the St. Louis Rams have lost wide receiver Mark Clayton for the year with a knee injury. More specifically, its a torn patella tendon that will require season ending surgery. Clayton was hurt as he tried to run down a Sam Bradford pass early in the Rams’ blowout loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

Head coach Steve Spagnuolo confirmed the injury earlier today:

“He’s got a torn patella. So that’s unfortunate for us.”

“We certainly don’t feel good about losing Mark because he’s made a lot of plays for us, but we have to find a way to overcome that somehow.”

Rams’ wide receivers have had the life expectancy of Spinal Tap drummers this season–Clayton is the third St. Louis WR to be lost for the season to a nasty knee injury. Donnie Curry and Dominique Avery both suffered torn ACL’s earlier this year. Spagnuolo talked about the possibility that undrafted practice squad rookie Danario Alexander who played his college ball at Missouri could take Clayton’s roster spot:

“We’ll certainly look at Danario. He’s excited about doing it. We want to make sure he’s OK physically.”

At this point, it would seem having two working knees would qualify him as being ‘OK physically’, relatively speaking. Spagnuolo was none to happy about the blowout loss to Detroit and particularly his team’s play on the defensive side of the ball. The Rams gave up 44 points to Detroit after allowing only 52 points in their four first games:

“I’m disappointed in the loss and I’m really upset the fact that how we lost and by how much and all of that. These guys feel the same way, so we’re in here trying to get it corrected.”

Clayton had caught 22 passes for 300 yards and two touchdowns in the first four games leading the Rams in all three categories.

In six seasons in the NFL he has 257 receptions and 14 touchdowns in 81 career games and had become Sam Bradford’s best downfield threat.