When the Los Angeles Rams drafted Ogbonnia Okoronkwo out of Oklahoma in the fifth round, they appeared to get a steal. He was a guy who could’ve gone two rounds earlier if not for size concerns, but Wade Phillips has never had trouble getting the most out of a player with less-than-ideal measurables.

Unfortunately, the Rams haven’t had the chance to see much of the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year after he suffered a broken foot early in the offseason workout program. He underwent surgery right away and was expected to return for training camp.

With camp in the books, that timetable was obviously off. Sean McVay said as much on Sunday when he provided the first update on Okoronkwo’s recovery in quite a while. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good news as it remains unclear when the rookie will get on the field.

“So, it’s been disappointing because we anticipated him really being able to be back this week and start to practice – I think really for that Oakland week was kind of what we had targeted a while back,” McVay said. “The foot injury, it isn’t probably progressing as quickly as we’d like. It is a day-by-day thing, but I think in an ideal situation – kind of what we had projected – we thought we’d be a little bit further along at this point.”

Foot injuries can be difficult, especially for a position that requires so much change of direction and explosiveness from the lower half of the body. As a rookie, the Rams don’t want to rush him back and cause further damage, potentially sidelining him for an even longer period of time.

Okoronkwo has been on the PUP list since camp opened, preventing him from practicing with the team. If he remains inactive when the regular season begins, he’ll be forced to miss the first six games. At that point, it’d be hard to imagine Okoronkwo making much of an impact this season, considering he wouldn’t be able to practice for those six weeks, either.

McVay hinted that the Rams are unsure if Okoronkwo would be activated in the next three weeks, which certainly creates some cause for concern.

“How that effects his status with us is kind of to be determined, just because we’ve still got a couple weeks,” McVay said. “It’s tough because you’d like to get him out there. You see the production that he had in college and specifically coming off that edge, but that has been a little bit slower process than I think everybody would’ve liked. You can’t rush through these foot injuries, especially when you have surgery on them and that’s kind of where we’re at with Obo.”

The Rams are working out Junior Galette on Monday with the intention of signing him, so that’ll lessen the blow if Okoronkwo isn’t ready for Week 1.