Wagoner, Thomas, & co. — who's back? Laurinaitis? Brockers? Washington? etc

Brockers expecting to play against Browns
By Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/10755/brockers-expecting-to-play-against-browns

EARTH CITY, Mo. — Although the final decision will fall in the hands of St. Louis Rams coach Jeff Fisher, defensive tackle Michael Brockers leaves little doubt about what he’s expecting Saturday night against the Cleveland Browns.

After suffering a sprained right ankle early in camp, Brockers not only has designs on playing in his first 2014 preseason game, but he also has an idea of how long he’d like to participate.

“Oh yeah, for sure I’m going to play versus Cleveland,” Brockers said. “Maybe get all the first quarter reps and try to show what I can do and show I can push off this ankle, put as much pressure as I can on it and be as dominant as I want to be.”

Brockers first suffered the injury before the team’s annual scrimmage on Aug. 2. But ankle issues have been a nuisance for him since he arrived as a first-round pick in 2012. In his rookie season, Brockers suffered a high ankle sprain late in the preseason that cost him the first three games of the year. At other times, including in the spring, Brockers has had a few minor ankle tweaks that have cost him much lesser chunks of time.

This time, Brockers’ injury was again to the right ankle, but he said Wednesday the type of sprain was much different and far less severe.

“I think they called it a “good high ankle sprain’ because it was in the back, it wasn’t really in the front and not as high or whatever,” Brockers said. “I don’t really know. I know after the high one, I couldn’t walk for about two weeks, and I’m back on the field after two weeks so for the most part I’m doing good.”

Brockers is indeed doing well as he recovers from the injury. He began doing some running and work on the side last week, and this week, he has jumped back into practice at full speed. He’s taken part in all of practice, including team drills, each of the past two days and has showed no lingering effects from the injury.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Brockers play against Cleveland considering how much he’s participated this week. But the Rams have been cautious with pushing their key injured players back to the field too soon.

“When you’re injured, and you’re watching your guys out here pushing through some of those hot days, you’re like man, if I was in there the reps would have been even,” Brockers said. “Somebody has to take your reps, you kind of hurt deep down inside, but you know you can’t go out there and possibly re-injure whatever was wrong with you. It’s good to finally be out here. It feels good, ankle feels good. A couple of tweaks here and there, but for the most part, I feel like I’m about 100 percent.”

Laurinaitis practicing, but still iffy for Browns
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/laurinaitis-practicing-but-still-iffy-for-browns/article_496b62c0-ad41-5e7b-8e68-f741d6b66919.html

The one thing linebacker James Laurinaitis just doesn’t do is miss playing time, be it on the practice field, in exhibition play, or regular-season contests.

But for two-plus weeks at Rams Park — and two preseason games — his world was awry because of an ankle injury. There’s no other way to put it: it just wasn’t normal to see Laurinaitis standing on the sideline.

“It’s not fun,” Laurinaitis said. “It’s not normal watching practice. You try to stay involved and you teach the guys … but I missed my guys out there.”

Laurinaitis returned to the practice field this week, and did a little bit more each day. He got in some 11-on-11 work Thursday, the team’s final full-scale workout prior to Saturday’s preseason game in Cleveland.

“Don’t know whether he’s going to go; it will be very close,” coach Jeff Fisher said following Thursday’s practice.

But there’s no hedging on the other Rams’ defensive starter who has been sidelined by an ankle injury. Fisher said definitively that D-tackle Michael Brockers will play against the Browns.

“Brock is back,” Fisher said after Thursday’s practice.

With perhaps a few individual exceptions, the plan is to play the starters on offense and defense the entire first half — or close to it. Brockers will be no exception even though this is his preseason debut after suffering the ankle injury during the team’s Aug. 2 FanFest.

“We’ve got numbers on the defensive line, and we traditionally rotate ‘em anyway,” Fisher said. “So with rotation, if he’s playing 15-20 plays he’s clearly playing till halftime.”

Fisher also said that left tackle Jake Long, guard/tackle Rodger Saffold, and cornerback Janoris Jenkins are expected to make their preseason debuts against the Browns. Long is coming back from offseason knee surgery; Saffold has been out with a stinger; Jenkins is back from a hamstring injury.

So almost all of the 22 projected opening-day starters will be in action in Cleveland. Laurinaitis remains iffy. Also, strongside linebacker Jo-Lonn Dunbar will sit because of an undisclosed injury.

“I’m kind of excited about getting the secondary together for the first time this year,” Fisher said. “That’s going to be a good thing.”

Laurinaitis, an old-style ironman, is eager to join the party. He has started all 80 regular-season games since entering the NFL in 2009 as a second-round draft pick from Ohio State.

That currently ranks fourth among NFL ironmen at linebacker in terms of consecutive starts, trailing only Minnesota’s Chad Greenway (87), the New York Jets’ David Harris (84), and New Orleans’ Curtis Lofton (83).

Laurinaitis missed a few plays last season against Indianapolis after suffering a cut to an ear, but most seasons he plays every single defensive snap.

“I don’t rest very well,” Laurinaitis said. “It’s not one of my attributes. I don’t like it.”

But an ankle injury just before the FanFest practice necessitated a rare “rest” for Laurinaitis. Laurinaitis was pursuing wide receiver Tavon Austin when he fell over defensive tackle Kendall Langford, who had fallen.

“I twisted my foot in a weird way,” Laurinaitis said. “Freak thing, really. But you know, you get it looked at, and you get it healed, and now I’m ready to go.”

Even so, go-time might not be Saturday in Cleveland.

“I’m not sure it’s fully my decision,” Laurinaitis said, smiling.

Undoubtedly head athletic trainer Reggie Scott and Fisher will have a say in Laurinaitis’ status prior to Saturday’s 7 p.m. kickoff at FirstEnergy Stadium.

“If I don’t play on Saturday, I’ll definitely play against Miami because I need to get out there, and hit blocks and flow and tackle and do all those things,” Laurinaitis said. “That’s why I don’t like kind of standing around.”

The Rams close the preseason on Thursday, Aug. 28 against the Dolphins.

Laurinaitis would be a lot more stubborn about playing if this was Minnesota week — the Rams’ opponent in the regular-season opener.

“If this is Minnesota week, I don’t care how many shots you’ve got to give me, how many pills that they allow,” Laurinaitis said. “I’m going. I pride myself on always being available.

“We always talk about ability or availability — two things that Coach (Gregg) Williams is big on, and I’ve always been big on. I pride myself on the fact that I haven’t missed a regular-season game.”

Williams is the Rams’ defensive coordinator.

In other words, it’s great to have ability. But ability doesn’t mean much if you’re not available on game day.

“It’s just that you’ve got to be smart,” Laurinaitis continued. “Do you go out there, and you’re like, ‘OK, let’s test it. Let’s do all these things.’

“You have a setback and then you’re out another four weeks or another three weeks. That’d be a terrible deal.”

Laurinaitis is one of the key components to the Rams’ run defense — and the defense, period — so the last thing the coaches want is a setback against Cleveland that could compromise his ability to play against Adrian Peterson and the Vikings on Sept. 7.

Laurinaitis had cleanup ankle surgery after the 2013 season. The surgery went well, but this current ankle injury just happened to be to the same ligament as the surgery repaired.

“The exact ligament got stretched a little bit,” he said. “It’s good now.”

Now that he’s back on the practice field, Laurinaitis said his conditioning is good, and his legs are fresh.

“It’s just going out there really next week not even thinking about it anymore — (where) it’s a non-issue,” he said.