Alaric Jackson Reportedly Suspended Two Games for Punching Bradley Chubb

The Rams lost a game in overtime on Monday night and then lost their left tackle on Tuesday. Alaric Jackson has been suspended for two games for punching Buffalo’s Bradley Chubb on the field after the Bills’ 37-34 win at SoFi Stadium, Aaron Wilson reported, in the second suspension of Jackson’s last three seasons.

What has been reported about the suspension?

Two games, agreed by every reporter on the story, with one procedural step still catching up. Wilson reported on Tuesday that the NFL has suspended Jackson, and Michael J. Duarte of the California Post reported the same outcome, Rams Wire reports. Heavy reports Wilson’s account included the language of the league’s disciplinary letter to Jackson. Adam Schefter of ESPN described the position slightly differently: the league had not yet notified the Rams or the NFLPA, but two games was the expectation, theScore reports. Read together, the reports describe a decision made and a notification in transit, which is why the Rams have not announced anything themselves. Jackson would serve the ban without pay and can appeal once it is formally issued, the New York Post reports. It caps a week in which the league’s discipline docket has run in every direction, from Dre Greenlaw’s one-game ban for a headbutt going to an appeal hearing to the rescinded fine for a drinking celebration.

What happened between Jackson and Chubb after the game?

The game was over and most of the stadium had emptied. Jackson had just swapped jerseys with one of Chubb’s Buffalo team-mates, the New York Post reports, when he and Chubb exchanged words near midfield. ESPN’s cameras showed Jackson hit Chubb in the face, knocking his cap off, Sporting News reports. Chubb went back toward him and was held away by several Bills players and by Myles Garrett, the Rams’ injured pass rusher, the New York Post reports. Chubb’s own account afterwards was deliberately flat: an emotional game, tempers flared, his team-mates held him back and he let it go, Total Pro Sports reports. What sparked the exchange is still unclear, and neither player has explained it. It happened minutes after a game Sean McVay had already called himself sick over, for settling for the blocked overtime kick that ended it, on the same field, which is how a 37-34 classic produced two days of Rams damage control instead of one.

Why is the reported length of the ban notable?

Because it is longer than the closest precedent the league set almost exactly a year ago. NBC Sports laid the comparison out before the ban was reported: last October the NFL suspended Detroit’s Brian Branch for one game for striking an opponent in the face immediately after a game, under the same postgame discipline route the league has confirmed applies here, rather than the personal conduct policy. Jackson’s reported two games double that, and the differences are the ones the league tends to price in. The punch came well after the final whistle rather than in the immediate aftermath, Chubb’s helmet was off, and Jackson has a prior suspension on his record from 2024, which Rams Wire notes was also two games, for a personal conduct violation. The league also had a fresh same-week example of post-play conduct to measure against, Cairo Santos appearing to try to trip Matthew Golden after a play in Chicago, which drew attention without anything like this outcome.

What does the ban cost the Rams?

Their blindside protector for a fortnight, in a division race that has no room in it. Jackson has started every game this season at left tackle, and Rams Wire reports the likely replacements are veteran David Quessenberry or rookie Keagen Trost, a steep drop from a starter the site grades among the league’s better tackles this year. The games he misses are winnable ones the 2-3 Rams now have to win shorthanded: Arizona in Week 6 and Las Vegas in Week 7, with a return on November 1 against the Chargers if the ban stands, the New York Post reports. Stafford threw 54 passes on Monday night behind Jackson’s side of the line. Whoever replaces him inherits that workload against the Cardinals on three full days of practice.

What happens next for Jackson and the Rams?

The paperwork, then the appeal decision. The formal notification Schefter reported as outstanding is the step that starts the appeal clock, and Jackson’s camp has to decide whether two games is worth contesting given the video and the precedent are both against a reduction to nothing. San Francisco is running the same calculation this week with Greenlaw, whose hearing falls on Tuesday with Washington waiting on Monday night. For the Rams, the practical questions come first: Quessenberry or Trost on Sunday, and whether a season that has already produced a blocked kick, an overtime loss and a postgame punch can be kept to football from here.