Los Angeles Rams ILB Micah Kiser suffers chest injury, to undergo surgery (UPDATED)

Even with the Los Angeles Rams benching every starter on the team outside of one player, they may have suffered a potentially significant loss as inside linebacker Micah Kiser was injured in the Week 2 contest of the preseason versus the Dallas Cowboys:

It sounds like Kiser’s pectoral injury could very well be a season-ending one, unfortunately.

Here’s Head Coach Sean McVay on the injury:

He got banged up. He had something with his pec (pectoral muscle). We’ll have a little more information later on and we’ll figure that out and we’ll give you an update tomorrow for sure.

...

Yeah. Part of the reason that you want to be careful, but you can’t go so overboard. With guys that have shown and established the fact that they can play significant snaps, we just felt with our team that was the approach we wanted to take. Football is a violent, physical game where injuries are inevitable, and you always have to be able to adjust and adapt accordingly. We’re hopeful that we’ll get some good information back on Micah. When you look at one of the guys that’s projected as a starter that’s actually participated, if you end up losing him, certainly I think you’d say, ‘Man, I wish I had handled that differently.’ But you’ve got to trust the decisions and everything that we do is for a reason and what we think is in the best interest of the players. Sometimes these unfortunate things happen and if that is the case with him, we’ll put our arms around him, we’ll support him and he’ll come back stronger. But we’ll figure out exactly what’s going on with him tomorrow.

Both Kiser and Bryce Hager were rotating at inside linebacker the past two contests as they’ve been a part of a fierce battle for the starting inside linebacker spot next to Cory Littleton. Kiser, who started in the preseason opener against the Oakland Raiders, entered the game in the second quarter last night after Hager received the first quarter of work.

The release of Mark Barron in the offseason showed how confident the Rams were in Kiser’s ability, leaving a ton of playing time available for the second-year prospect out of Virginia. Unfortunately for both parties, the season may have ended before it started.

In the case that Kiser is out for an extended period of time, Hager could draw the start at inside linebacker, though young players Travin Howard and Dakota Allen have shown a lot of promise in two preseason games.

(UPDATED, Aug. 18, 9:56pm ET)

Kiser will undergo surgery on Tuesday. No confirmation, but this kind of injury usually required a 4-6 month recovery timetable.