St. Louis Rams training camp report, 8/5: Pettis stepping out

Yesterday's practice brought the first news of injuries for the St. Louis Rams. Second-year cornerback Jerome Murphy suffered the most serious injury, coming down wrong on his ankle while defending Danario Alexander. It's potential fractured, but there is still no official word. 

Robert Quinn wasn't quite a full go at practice yesterday. Spagnuolo kept him out of live tackling, but he did work in contact drills. The coach, who knows a thing or two about pass rushers, praised Quinn as a quick study. 

He's picking up things pretty well. This is not easy for a young guy at that position to pick up, especially with some of the zone blitzes, but I'm fairly impressed with that part of it.

Lots of dings and pesky injuries on the list from yesterday's practice. DT Fred Robbins left the field early with a knee injury, which doesn't sound serious. Hamstrings and all those soft tissue injuries happen often early in training camp, as players loosen up and get used to playing in pads. Throw in a lockout that prevented players from having formal practices with their teams (though there would have been no pads) and, perhaps more importantly, no access to the trainers and team medical staff, and you wonder if there won't be more injuries than usual this year across the NFL.

Lots more practice notes to compare and share, including some thoughts from Don Banks at Sports Illustrated, who was at practice yesterday. 

Don Banks from Sports Illustrated was on hand for practice yesterday. The vaunted NFL writer (who was kind enough to lend me his headphones in the media room at the Combine this year) made more than one mention of the Rams young playmakers. Lance Kendricks stood out. Here's what Banks had to say about Kendricks:

At Rams camp, where rookie tight end Lance Kendricks is off to a star-of-camp start early on. The 2nd-rd pick is going to be a weapon.

Banks also relayed Spagnuolo's very, very positive impressions of rookie receivers Austin Pettis and Greg Salas.

Speaking of Pettis, he had another great day at practice on Friday. He also went toe-to-toe with Al Harris. Salas missed practice with a sore hamstring; he should be fine. Brandon Gibson continued his impressive August, snagging balls left and right. Mike Sims-Walker made a nice deep catch, but spent most of the day with the second team. Donnie Avery worked with the second team again. 

Robert Quinn, suited up and hitting for the first time in his very young NFL career, the rookie flashed some of that ability that made him such a steal on draft day. He blew by Rodger Saffold on one play. Another defender who made a positive impression was safety Darian Stewart. The Rams could have some real depth at safety...now about that cornerback depth. The defense as a whole played pretty solid, stifling the offense on more than one occasion. We heard good reports on the linebackers. 

Hat tip to TST's own Brick Top, who was out at practice Friday, and everyone else who helped paint the picture for those of us who couldn't make it out to practice. You can follow our entire list of Rams Campers right here. 

Rams Herd has a report from practice yesterday as well.