Rams Report: Spagnuolo Loves His Linebackers, Illinois Mike's Health & Roster Updates
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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| StLouisRams.com |
Senior Writer
Preparation for Week 1 of the regular season has begun for the St. Louis Rams. After earning a 4-0 record in the preseason, the team must now focus on the Philadelphia Eagles if they want to keep up their winning ways.
"Philadelphia is an elite team," Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo said after Monday's practice. "It’s going to be a hell of challenge, and I think our guys are looking forward to it."
The Eagles are just the start of it though, as the Rams are set to face 2010 playoff teams in five of their first seven games.
Now that cut day is out of the way and the 53-man roster is pretty much set, the team can solely focus on the start of the season—something we weren't sure would even happen earlier this summer.
Follow along as we run through a few quick nuggets from Monday's practice.
—As far as injuries go, the Rams figure to be pretty healthy when the Eagles come to town.
Tight end Michael Hoomanawanui missed practice once again with a strained calf.
Spagnuolo calls Hoomanawanui's injury "a big question mark," and that they will "have to take it day-to-day literally and see what happens."
Defensive end Eugene Sims was also absent from practice, but Spagnuolo didn't seem all too concerned, "Eugene’s just an oblique, hopefully we’ll get him through."
—On Sunday, just one day after 53-man rosters had to be set, the Rams made two moves.
1. St. Louis released guard Hank Fraley to make room for guard/center Tony Wragge.
"Obviously we’ve seen or gone against the 49ers so we we’re familiar with him," Spagnuolo said of the move. "I thought he would add something to the team depth wise."
2. They also released undrafted rookie tight end Ben Guidugli to make room for tight end Stephen Spach.
"I was actually in Philadelphia when Stephen was a rookie, so I knew him that way," Spags said.
—Linebacker was one of the more hotly contested positions during training camp. With James Laurinaitis, Brady Poppinga, Ben Leber, Jabara Williams, Chris Chamberlain, Josh Hull and Bryan Kehl in tow, Spagnuolo sounds very happy with who he ended up with.
"Well, we are always looking for the same thing in linebackers, which is guys that play downhill and react well and play physical," he said. "These guys I think can run and play physical and you need that in a defense. Hopefully we’ll do that the whole year long."
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