Rams report, 10/3: Lots of stuff you already knew

AP

* Davis named starter. Jeff Fisher has backtracked on his pre-bye week talk and has named Austin Davis the Rams' starting QB for the rest of the season. It's surprising that Fisher changed his mind after saying nothing but "Shaun Hill is our starter" for three weeks, but it's the right move. Davis' ability to lead the offense, his mobility, his fearlessness going downfield, and certainly not least, his 70+% completion percentage, have earned him the starting role, while Hill hadn't done anything to plant himself decisively into the role.

Designating Davis as the starter for the rest of the season is the right move, too. If he's earned the job, he's earned the chance to have and keep the job without having to look over his shoulder every week. I feared Davis' interceptions or blitz-reading skills might knock him back to second-string, but in promoting Davis and avoiding a QB controversy, Fisher has made the right move.
 
* Injury report: The Rams should be in pretty good shape coming off a bye week, and they are.
Out: Trumaine Johnson (knee), Barrett Jones (back), Brandon McGee (foot). Johnson is said to be on schedule, which to me means he could return in the next couple of weeks. Jones has improved to the point of working out individually and could be ready to go next week.
Probable: Shaun Hill (quad). Sounds like Hill is really 100%, though.
Questionable: Tavon Austin (knee). Austin has looked good in practice and should be active tomorrow.

Two significant injuries for the Eagles: they could be missing Mychal (aka Marvin) Kendricks on defense, and will be missing center Jason Kelce on the offensive line.

* Tick talk. The reason for Scott Wells' mysterious absences this summer has been revealed: a bug bite. STLToday article OK, it was much more serious than that. Wells contracted a disease called ehrlichia, which develops from tick bites. It started with flu-like symptoms before Wells actually ended up in intensive care the last week of OTAs. Yikes. Wells also lost 20 pounds while in ICU. Double yikes. Wells doesn't have any idea where he got the tick bite. He wasn't out camping and his dogs weren't even at his house. He missed time in training camp getting his weight and his strength back.

So obviously, Wells had a lot to overcome physically just to be ready for the season. STLToday's article agrees with my last RamView that Wells and the offensive line are coming off their best performance of the season. Still TBD if a symptom of ehrlichia is forgetting snap counts, though.

* Practice squad shuffle. Justin Veltung returned to the practice squad during the bye week, replacing Brad Smelley. Since then, though, Smelley has returned, replacing Kourtnei Brown. The current squad: Denicos Allen, Emory Blake, Christian Bryant, Matt Conrath, Garrett Gilbert, Mike Remmers, Smelley, Veltung, Jemea Thomas, Brandon Washington.

* Alumni report:
- Ryan Pickett re-gained the crown for longest-tenured former Ram from Steven Jackson when he was signed by Houston last week.
- Carolina signed Chris Ogbonnaya. He was cut by Cleveland before the start of this season after playing there for three years. Carolina's top three RBs are all out right now, so Chris could see some carries.
- Kevin Reddick, who had a cup of coffee on the Rams' PS in September, has been signed by San Diego.
- I'm sure everyone's had enough of the Ray Rice story, but I didn't know about former Ram (identified only as a former Raven) Chris Johnson's involvement in the anti-domestic violence movement. I knew his sister had passed away but not that her death was a result of domestic violence. Johnson has become a pretty prominent voice, so I thought I'd link to this SI.com article.

ESPN

* The Rams are 7-point underdogs to the Eagles Sunday. Straight up, 97% of fans are picking Philadelphia to win. The Eagles looked far from unbeatable in San Francisco, though, thanks to injuries in the middle of their offensive line. LeSean McCoy, and therefore my FFL team, have gone nowhere the past two weeks. The 49ers knocked Nick Foles around. Of the two QBs tomorrow, Davis may be the one with the better deep ball. I would definitely like to see the Rams run plays that get Davis outside. Philadelphia was clueless last week to the idea of pocket containment. They don't defend the edges well at all, so let's run plenty of sweeps, too. A lot more flaws to this team than you'd expect for a playoff-caliber team. Let's see if the Rams can find ways to exploit those.

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