Rams report, 12/16

* Thursday injury report:
Did not participate: Sam Bradford, A.J. Feeley. Bradford's ankle sprain has regressed. He is back to needing the protective boot, and with the shortened week, seems extremely unlikely to play Sunday against the Bengals. Look for Kellen Clemens behind center. Also not practicing: James Hall, Justin King, Chris Long and Mark LeVoir. King has a sore shoulder.

Limited: Craig Dahl, Josh Gordy, Quinn Porter, Fred Robbins, Eugene Sims, Steven Spach. I assume that means Spach has already cleared concussion testing.

* Draft news:
Another brave young college student has decided to risk the chance of becoming a Ram. USC tackle Matt Kalil has announced he'll enter the 2012 Draft. Let the get-playmakers vs. build-from-the-lines-out debate begin! Kalil and Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon are certainly strong candidates to be selected by the Rams with what figures to be the 2nd or 3rd pick overall next April.

* Coaching carousel:
Though he was a golden boy just last season as a rookie head coach, reports say that the Buccaneers were going to fire head coach Raheem Morris on Monday, but changed their minds because they couldn't find "a suitable interim candidate." Meaning they think their whole coaching staff sucks?

The Bucs went from 3-13 in 2009 to 10-6 in Morris' first season in 2010, but did not go to the playoffs because they weren't in the NFC West. The 2011 Bucs are 4-9, have lost 7 in a row, and Morris is widely believed to be gone if they don't get another win this season. The Bucs pride themselves on defense and Morris is a defensive-minded coach, but they're one of the worst run defenses in the league, they've killed themselves with turnovers. and have given up 35 points or more in 4 of their last 5 losses, including a 41-14 humiliation to the 4-10 Jagwires, who lost in Atlanta last night by that very same score.

And there are people COUGHBrian BurwellCOUGH who think we're being impatient around here to want a head coaching change for the Rams? The Bucs are planning to dump a coach who's won more games in two years than the Rams have won in three!

Even if Morris does hang on, expect Bucs OC Greg Olson to be wished the best in his future endeavors. And no, I'm not real interested in having him back here. Unless you want Steven Jackson getting ten carries a game like Olson's idiotically done with LaGarrette Blount half this season.

The Rams got permission from the Bucs to interview Morris during their 2009 coaching search, when Morris was the Bucs' DC, but that interview never happened. Watching major coaching flameouts by Josh McDaniels and apparently Morris now, both still just 35, it's starting to look like a bad idea to hire a head coach too young. Unless you're the Steelers.

-$-