Two a day practices and 100 degree heat taking its toll a bit on the St. Louis Rams with some nagging injuries. Offensive lineman John Greco left the field in the morning because of soreness in his pectoral muscle. Wide receiver Keenan Burton skipped the team drills in the afternoon because of knee swelling. There are a host of other small injuries that the players need to fight through and head coach Steve Spagnuolo says he works closely with his training staff.
“When they start to get tired is when you get the soft tissue injuries. Knock on wood. The soft tissues are the ones where they get tired and if they don’t hydrate and do the right things with their body then you have a little problem. You get the groins…and there’s guys out there that are not on this list that are fighting through those things. That’s what good teams do because you need a lot of players to practice, have a quality practice.”
One player back on the practice field is offensive tackle Jason Smith. He was out there for the first time Thursday morning working in 11-on-11 drills, but was limited to conditioning work in the afternoon session. Smith suffered a stress fracture in his left foot in spring drills. “Yeah, absolutely. He’s fired up. The guy has been chomping at the bit to get in there and he’s had a chance to do that the last couple of practices. I think the rest of the guys feel it. I know he feels it. I think the coaches are happy about it, too.”
The Rams will host their first scrimmage Saturday evening at Lindenwood University in St. Charles.
