Rams injury report: LA’s offense will look much different vs Cardinals

The Los Angeles Rams listed Jared Goff, Cam Akers and Micah Kiser as “Did Not Practice” on Wednesday, with Malcolm Brown (shoulder) and David Edwards (ankle) as “Limited.” Goff has been ruled out, while Kiser isn’t expected to play despite being activated from injured reserve. Left tackle Andrew Whitworth is also back at practice but hasn’t been activated from injured reserve and isn’t expected to play on Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.

Brown and Edwards are expected to be able to play, with Brown as the starting running back if Akers isn’t able to return after missing Week 15 with an ankle injury. Sean McVay could not confirm or deny if Akers would be able to start against the Cardinals.

Darrell Henderson was placed on injured reserve this week after suffering a high ankle sprain on Sunday. The Rams are almost certain to have backup running back Xavier Jones active behind Brown and/or Akers; Jones scored 45 touchdowns during his career at Southern Methodist, only a couple shoelaces shy of the school record set by Zach Line and former Rams great Eric Dickerson.

Los Angeles will also be without leading receiver Cooper Kupp, who was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list this week.

In Sean McVay’s ideal world of who is on the Rams roster, his starting offense would look like this:

Goff-Akers-Henderson-Kupp-Woods-Higbee-Whitworth-Edwards-Blythe-Corbett-Havenstein

Instead, it seems as though it will look like this:

Wolford-Brown-Jones-Woods-Reynolds-Higbee-Noteboom-Edwards-Blythe-Corbett-Havenstein

However, if the Rams do make the playoffs, it is possible that they could get back Jared Goff, Cam Akers, Cooper Kupp, Andrew Whitworth for the wild card round, if not also adding back Micah Kiser to the defense.

The Cardinals listed a bunch of players on the injury report, including Kyler Murray, but it’s too early to say if any will be ruled out. Murray was a full participant and said he feels good to play. DeAndre Hopkins and Larry Fitzgerald were also on the report.

I recorded a new episode of the Pod-TST podcast, documenting some of what John Wolford is and slightly previewing the game.