By Cedric Williams
After battling injury issues most of the season, the St. Louis Rams find themselves in a rather fortunate position heading into a nationally televised Thursday Night Football game against the NFC West leading Arizona Cardinals.
All 53 players on the St. Louis active roster are actually healthy, and after practicing with a full squad on Wednesday, the entire group is available to play Thursday night.
The Rams have eight players listed on their official injury report and only one, DE Chris Long (ankle), is listed less than probable for Thursday.
But even being listed as questionable, which Long is, just means the Rams won’t know for sure that he’ll be able to play until after pregame warmups.
All indications, though, are that Long will be able to go Thursday night.
“He was okay,” Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said following Wednesday’s workout at the Rams Park Training Facility in Earth City. “We were comparing him to where he was last Wednesday, so he looked okay. We’ll see how he is in the warm-ups tomorrow. Very optimistic about it.”
Other players listed on St. Louis’ injury report include LB James Laurinaitis (ankle), C Scott Wells (elbow), TE Cory Harkey (knee), LB Will Herring (foot), OL Rodger Saffold (shoulder), DT Alex Carrington (thigh), and WR Kenny Britt (not injury related).
Each of those players is listed as probable for Thursday.
For Arizona, RG Paul Fanaika and S Tyrann Mathieu (aka “The Honey Badger) were ruled out by head coach Bruce Arians, while DT Ed Stinson and CB Antonio Cromartie are listed as questionable.
The Cardinals had feared that Cromartie might miss the rest of the season after suffering an Achilles injury last week. But the veteran corner has been moving well during practice this week and will go through a series of tests prior to Thursday’s kickoff to determine if he can move well enough to play.
“He walked around pretty good,” Arians told the Arizona media on Wednesday. “He looks as if he could possibly play.”
ST. LOUIS RAMS Injury Report
PROBABLE: LB James Laurinaitis (ankle), C Scott Wells (elbow), TE Cory Harkey (knee), LB Will Herring (foot), OL Rodger Saffold (shoulder), DT Alex Carrington (thigh), WR Kenny Britt (not injury related).
QUESTIONABLE: DE Chris Long (ankle).
ARIZONA CARDINALS Injury Report
PROBABLE: LB Lorenzo Alexander (knee), WR Larry Fitzgerald (knee), LB Larry Foote (foot), LB Matt Shaughnessy (shoulder), QB Drew Stanton (ankle/knee), T Jared Veklheer (ankle).
QUESTIONABLE: CB Antonio Cromartie (ankle), DT Ed Stinson (toe).
OUT: S Tyrann Mathieu (thumb), RG Paul Fanaika (ankle).
For more Rams news and updates, visit Rams Central.
Cedric Williams, a lifelong St. Louisan and proud UMSL alum, has been a freelance reporter/photographer covering St. Louis area sports for nearly two decades. Most recently, he has been working as a credentialed beat writer covering the Rams and small-school college sports for Examiner.com and other outlets from around the area. Please share any comments, questions, or feedback with Cedric at cedricwilliams510@gmail.com. His work can be found on Examiner.com.
