The Rams will not have to contend with running back Jeremiyah Love this weekend.
Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur announced that Love will not play in Week 6 during his Friday press conference. Love has been dealing with an ankle injury for the last couple of weeks and LaFleur said earlier in the week that the team wants him to get back to full health.
Love did not practice at all this week and the decision to rule him out gives him more time to heal. LaFleur said there have not been any conversations about placing the first-round pick on injured reserve, so they will hope to get him back on the field ahead of their Week 7 game against the Broncos.
Tyler Allgeier and Bam Knight will be the backs for Arizona against the Rams.
Cardinals Clips
The Rams added safety Kam Curl to the practice report Thursday. He was limited due to an ankle injury.
It indicates Curl injured his ankle during practice, but coach Sean McVay doesn’t hold a news conference again until Friday.
The Rams also added offensive lineman Keagen Trost to the injury report with a hamstring injury, but he was a full participant.
Wide receiver Alex Bachman (wrist) returned to full participation after limited work Wednesday.
The rest of the Rams’ report remained the same: Tight end Davis Allen (foot) did not practice, and inside linebacker Nate Landman (wrist/shoulder), tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) and cornerback Josh Wallace (shoulder) were limited again. Inside linebacker Omar Speights (knee) was a full participant for a second consecutive day.
Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love’s ankle injury continues to create uncertainty about the first-round pick’s availability for Sunday’s game against the Rams.
Love missed practice for the second straight day on Thursday. The injury has been lingering for a couple of weeks and head coach Mike LaFleur said on Wednesday that the team would “give it a little bit of rest and see how it is as the week goes on.”
Friday will bring more word on whether the Cardinals will have the rookie for Week 6. Tyler Allgeier and Bam Knight are the other backs on Arizona’s 53-man roster.
Safeties Wydett Williams (concussion) and Andrew Wingard (knee) also missed practice. Safety Kitan Crawford (ankle) and wide receiver Devin Duvernay (ribs) were both limited participants.
Cardinals running back Jeremiyah Love did not practice on Wednesday due to a lingering ankle issue.
His availability for Sunday’s game against the Rams is in question.
Love’s right ankle sprain from the preseason has healed, coach Mike LaFleur said, but the left ankle has bothered him the past two weeks.
“We want to get this ankle right,” LaFleur said, via Darren Urban of the team website.
That could mean Love taking a week off.
He played 36 of 73 snaps in the loss to the Lions on Sunday, with 12 rushes for only 22 yards.
“I’m going to try to be as candid as possible knowing that everyone is listening to this too,” LaFleur said. “He’s a tough dude. But you see how he plays and how aggressive he is with his cuts. Imagine being a running back in the NFL and putting your foot down and cutting the way that you are capable of.
“We all agree that as much as he wants to battle, hey, let’s give it a little bit of rest and see how it is as the week goes on.”
Safeties Dewey Wingard (knee) and Wydett Williams Jr. (concussion) also did not practice.
Safety Kitan Crawford (ankle) and wide receiver/returner Devin Duvernay (ribs) were limited. Crawford is in his 21-day return-to-practice window.
Safety Budda Baker, outside linebacker Josh Sweat and left guard Isaac Seumalo had their usual rest day.
The Rams did not practice Wednesday, two days after losing to the Bills in overtime. Thus, their injury report was estimated.
The Rams list inside linebacker Nate Landman as limited with wrist and shoulder injuries.
Wide receiver Alex Bachman (rest), tight end Colby Parkinson (shoulder) and cornerback Josh Wallace (shoulder) were also limited.
Tight end Davis Allen (foot) was the only player who didn’t practice for the Rams.
Inside linebacker Omar Speights (knee) was a full participant.
Yes, the trade that sent receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. from the Cardinals to the Texans was fully in place before Sunday. As it turns out, it was fully in place before Saturday.
Via Cole Thompson of USA Today, Texans G.M. Nick Caserio said in an appearance on 95.7 The Fan in Houston that the trade was finalized on Friday evening. Caserio said that the Cardinals wanted to wait until Sunday to announce it.
Most importantly, Caserio pushed back against the theory that the deal hinged on the Texans beating the Titans on Sunday.
“What happened in the game had zero bearing on the outcome,” Caserio said. “Like, we’re not going to agree to something and then see what happens in a game and then back out of it.”
Caserio’s comments make the initial half-report from ESPNFL even more bizarre. It’s possible, if not likely, that the folks who broke the news that the Cardinals would be trading Harrison but who didn’t identify the destination knew damn well where Harrison was going, but agreed not to name the Texans as part of the dealmaking that often happens when, coincidentally, the #insiders trade discretion for future considerations.
It didn’t take much effort (which qualified me for the assignment) to get to the bottom of the question of where Harrison was being traded.
Bottom line? Per Caserio, the deal was done on Friday night. By Saturday morning, only part of the story was reported as part of the first news that Harrison’s time in Arizona had ended. It made no sense then, and it makes even less sense now.
Rams left tackle Alaric Jackson will be suspended for sucker punching Bills linebacker Bradley Chubb. But Jackson won’t miss two games.
Hearing officer Derrick Brooks has reduced Jackson’s suspension to one game on appeal.
It’s possible that Jackson’s case included evidence regarding the provocation from Chubb that preceded the approach. Chubb may have said something that made the punch less unreasonable. Or not so unreasonable to support a two-game suspension.
Jackson will still serve a one-game suspension, missing Sunday’s game against the Cardinals. At a base salary of $16.822 million, he’ll lose $934,555.
That may have been a factor in the final decision. Apart from the time missed, Jackson was looking at losing nearly $2 million on a two-game suspension.
Regardless, Jackson is fortunate to be missing only one game. He punched Chubb minutes after the game ended. Hot blood should have cooled by then. And Jackson likely would have been arrested if he’d done it in the parking lot instead of in the middle of the field.
The Cardinals opened the practice window for safety Kitan Crawford on Wednesday.
Crawford has been designated for return from injured reserve, which gives him 21 days to practice with the team before he must be added to the active roster. Crawford can be activated at any point in that window.
The 2025 seventh-round pick injured his ankle in the season opener. He had three tackles before his injury and he had 20 tackles in 15 appearances during his rookie season.
The Cardinals also announced that they have signed tight end Shawn Bowman to the 53-man roster from the practice squad. Bowman has also spent time with the Jaguars, but has not appeared in any regular season games.
The Cardinals spent time with a possible veteran addition to their offensive line on Tuesday.
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reports that Jamaree Salyer visited with the team.
Salyer was a 2022 sixth-round pick of the Chargers and he moved on to the Dolphins as a free agent this offseason. Salyer went on injured reserve with a knee injury over the summer and Miami released him off of that list in August.
Per Fowler, Salyer had arthroscopic surgery on his knee and has been cleared to play.
Salyer made 31 starts for the Chargers over his first two seasons and saw time at both tackle and guard.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell credited the crowd for helping his team in Sunday’s win over the Cardinals, even though the Lions were on the road.
Campbell said Lions fans have showed out in each of the last two road games, but they were particularly loud in Arizona, when the Lions won 45-21.
“Our fans were outstanding. They traveled well — they traveled well to Carolina, we just didn’t give them anything to cheer about,” Campbell said. “They took over that stadium. You could hear them and by the end of it, that was good stuff. We hear them. We hear you. And we love it. We love it.”
Lions fans have traveled as well as anyone in the NFL in recent years, routinely making themselves heard in road games. That matters to Campbell.
