The Rams might be going through a series of cataclysmic injuries, but their opponents this week – their NFC West rival Arizona Cardinals – somehow might have it even worse.
This week, the Cardinals (3-6) put quarterback Gardner Minshew and receiver Michael Wilson on season-ending injured reserve with a torn UCL and a fractured vertebra, respectively. Their additions make 11 Cardinals on IR, including two other receivers and rookie running back Jeremiyah Love.
The Minshew one particularly stings because the Cardinals traded their previous starting quarterback, Jacoby Brissett, to the Ravens a week ago. So the Cardinals will start rookie quarterback Carson Beck with a receiving corps of Reggie Virgil, Simi Fehoko, Devin Duvernay and Harrison Wallace III against the Rams (5-4).
And waiting for the third-round draft pick out of Miami on Sunday at State Farm Stadium for his NFL debut will be the Rams’ pass rush headlined by Aaron Donald and Myles Garrett and their 239.5 career sacks.
“I know he’s excited to be playing. He’s going to go out there and try to find a way to help his team to win,” Donald told reporters Thursday. “Our job is to try to find a way to get to him, make him uncomfortable and make his first game hell if we can. I know he’s going to try to do what he needs to do to try to beat us and we have to do what we need to do to stop him and get a win.”
Beck’s start does present a unique challenge to the Rams as a defense. He has only one game of NFL tape to study, and that was three months ago in the first game of the preseason in which he completed 15 of 19 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown against a bedraggled version of the Carolina Panthers’ defense.
So defensive coordinator Chris Shula and his staff have had to dig a little deeper in their preparation for the Cardinals than usual.
“You’re trying to figure out what he likes, what he doesn’t like. Obviously, the cut-ups and the tape and all that stuff you’re watching, he’s not necessarily in them. He hasn’t taken a regular-season snap this year,” Shula said. “You’re doing a little bit of double duty where … you’re also doing your due diligence on him, the quarterback, what he likes, whether he only played in the Hall of Fame game or what he liked back at Miami or Georgia, different things like that, how he moves in the pocket. Nothing we can’t handle, but it is different than playing somebody that’s on the tape.”
Nacua to the IR
The Rams placed wide receiver Puka Nacua on injured reserve Thursday, requiring him to miss at least four games before he can return to practice or game settings. The earliest he could return would be in Week 15 against the Dallas Cowboys.
The All-Pro receiver sprained his MCL and PCL on the final offensive snap of the Rams’ win over the Commanders on Sunday. He is also dealing with turf toe. Head coach Sean McVay said Wednesday the Rams would not place Nacua on IR because of roster management mechanics, but the team opted for a different course.
Nacua, who missed two games earlier in the season with a groin injury, leads the Rams with 70 receptions and 715 receiving yards. His four receiving touchdowns are tied for the team lead with Davante Adams, also currently on injured reserve.
McVay said Wednesday that there is reason to believe Adams will be able to return from his ruptured hamstring tendon in Week 13.
Ferguson return mechanics
Rams tight end Terrance Ferguson is not practicing this week after injuring his hamstring in practice last week as he began his return from injured reserve a week ago.
Ferguson, who hasn’t played since Week 3 with an ankle injury, is likely to be out now for longer than his three-week return-to-practice window, which expires before the Rams’ Week 12 game against the Green Bay Packers. If it were to expire without him being activated from injured reserve, he would have to miss the rest of the season.
For that reason, McVay says the Rams will try to preserve a roster spot for the tight end when that deadline rolls around, whether he is healthy or not.
“Even if he’s not able to play in Green Bay, we’re hopeful to save a roster spot for him,” McVay said. “A lot of that is contingent on what progress he’s making. It [his hamstring pull] was so recent that there are not a whole lot of updates on that.”
Injury report
CB Trent McDuffie (back), TE Tyler Higbee (illness), TE Davis Allen (oblique) and S Kam Curl (toe) did not practice Thursday. McDuffie was seen in pads and a helmet testing his back with the medical staff, but it did not qualify as participation in individual or team drills.