Wagoner, Thomas, & Co. on Bailey's early return

Bailey’s back and raring to go
• By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/bailey-s-back-and-raring-to-go/article_8e1a2044-7b20-5468-8b1a-e478769bef52.html

There was a time late last week when it looked like the new NFL drug policy was in place, to the point where Stedman Bailey happily tweeted that he might play Sunday against Tampa Bay.

“I kinda got excited when I first started to hear the rumors,” Bailey said. “I kinda got word that I might be able to suit up against Tampa.”

Obviously that didn’t happen, making it a long weekend for the Rams’ wide receiver. Instead of playing against the Buccaneers, Bailey ended up watching the game on TV from Miami, where he has been staying with his family and working with his personal trainer.

“It was just like a waiting game,” Bailey said. “I just kinda sat by my phone. I was trying to pay attention to what my agents were telling me.”

After the false alarm over the weekend, Bailey and several other suspended players finally got the green light late Tuesday night. Bailey was on the first flight to St. Louis on Wednesday morning.

“He came running into the building as fast as he could,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “He went right into practice. This is the first day of the preparation week and he made it. He missed the (morning) meetings, but he picked it up.

“We’ll plug him in, in his familiar roles on special teams, and we’ll see how he does for the offense.”

Bailey arrived at Rams Park at about 10:30 a.m., which was early enough to take part in the offensive walk-through period. During the regular practice, held indoors because of heavy rain earlier in the day, he got some work with the starting offensive unit.

Bailey was suspended four games during the offseason for violating league policy on performing-enhancing drugs. Under terms of the new drug policy, Bailey’s violation would not have been subject to suspension. Because of that, coupled with the fact that he was suspended after the start of the 2014 league year (which began in March), his suspension was rescinded.

So he missed just two games — the Minnesota and Tampa Bay contests — instead of four.

“First and foremost, it feels extremely good for me to be back here with my teammates,” Bailey said. “The whole time that I was off for the first two weeks, it was a dreadful feeling for me. I’m just happy that it’s all over with now.”

His personal trainer, Davin Bush, is someone Bailey worked with throughout the offseason. Bush was a high school quarterback, so Bailey at least had someone who could throw him a decent ball during training.

“He just did a good job of keeping my body in shape, so once I got back I could hit the field running,” Bailey said.

The Rams would like nothing better than to see Bailey running under a few passes from Austin Davis, the team’s likely starter at quarterback, Sunday against Dallas. In fact, Fisher didn’t rule out the possibility of Bailey having a big role on offense against the Cowboys.

“He’s in the (game) plan,” Fisher said. “We’ve got a couple more days of preparation and game-planning. It’s quite possible that he could play quite a bit.”

That’s especially true after fellow wide receiver Tavon Austin suffered a sprained knee in the first half of the Tampa Bay game and did not return. Austin did some work on the stationary bike Wednesday but did not practice.

He’s wearing a brace on the knee and was still walking stiffly Wednesday, making his status iffy at this point for Dallas. The last thing Fisher wants to do is rush Austin back into the lineup, particularly with the team’s bye week coming up after the Dallas game.

“We’re going to play Tavon when Tavon’s ready to play,” Fisher said. “We’re not going to let him go out there if he can’t — if he doesn’t have his speed and quickness. We’ll just see how that goes.

“Obviously, he didn’t do anything today. He’s better, but he didn’t do anything today. With Sted coming back, Sted gives us some versatility. Perhaps we can fill in some of those voids in the event that Tavon can’t play.”

Bailey could absorb some of the game reps that Austin normally gets, although Austin Pettis did a good job filling in for Austin against Tampa Bay. If needed, Bailey does have experience playing the slot, the spot where Austin usually lines up at wide receiver.

From the OTAs in June, through training camp, and throughout most of the preseason, Bailey might have been the team’s most impressive wide receiver, flashing good hands and improved route-running, and gaining consistent separation.

“It’s great having him back,” Davis said. “He’s a guy that obviously knows the system very well, has great hands, has a great feel. Knows exactly what we’re trying to get done. So he’s another playmaker out there.”

Bailey showed enough in the spring, camp, and preseason to make you think he could develop into a go-to receiver for the Rams. However, many of the catches that fueled such optimism came on passes thrown by Sam Bradford, now out for the year with a knee injury.

But Bailey has caught enough throws from Davis and Shaun Hill in practice and preseason games that it should be easy enough to get back in sync.

“Even last year, I got a chance to work with Austin a lot just being on the scout team,” Bailey said.

Bailey didn’t start seeing much action in games last year until later in the season, so he did a fair amount of scout team work. That won’t be the case this time around.